Emily reigned as the #1 name for a decade, and remains very popular today.
Thanks to Lulu for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
Emily: Not Amelia
Unravelling the threads between Emily and Amelia presents some challenges, but they’re not directly related.
Amelia comes from Amalia, ultimately from the Germanic element amal – work.
Emily, on the other hand, starts out as a feminine form of the old Roman family name Aemilius, via the masculine name Emil. In Latin, aemulus means rival.
But in real life, those lines blur.
Emily: Princess
Royalty gets credit for reviving the name in the eighteenth century.
The future King George II welcomed a daughter in 1911. Her name? Amelia Sophia Eleanor. George may have become King of Great Britain, but he was born and grew up in northern Germany. His daughter Amelia was born in Germany, too.
Her family called her Emily.
George II’s grandson ascended the throne as George III in 1760. He, too, named his daughter Amelia, honoring his aunt. Both Amelias shared the same affectionate nickname, too.
The two princesses helped revive the name in their adopted land.
Emily: Accomplished Women
The first wave of late eighteenth and nineteenth century women by the name accomplished much.
Texas gives us Emily Austin Perry. At one point, she was considered the wealthiest woman in Texas, at a time when few women owned any property. Mrs. Perry established educational institutions, helped secure railroad service, and more.
There’s also:
- Etiquette maven Post
- One of the Brontë sisters, the author of Wuthering Heights
- Poet Dickinson
- British suffragette Davison
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Greene Balch
Emily: 1960s
While the name has never left the US Top 300, by the 1960s it had fallen from favor.
Then came 1964 movie The Americanization of Emily, set during World War II and starring Julie Andrews as an Englishwoman who falls in love with an American soldier. The movie included a title song, simply “Emily,” which became quite popular. Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra both recorded it.
The song could easily inspire parents. It tells us that the name “… has the murmuring sound of May … All silver bells, coral shells, carousels …”
We also met Emily Elizabeth, the young owner of Clifford, the Big Red Dog. The duo has starred in more than six dozen books, a television series, and may still get a full-length feature film. Norman Bidwell wrote the first book in 1963.
Emily: Name of a Generation
By 1973, the name had entered the US Top 100. In 1991, it made the Top Ten. Two dozens years later, it remains near the top of the charts, at #8.
The name remains equally popular throughout the English-speaking world.
Other spellings appear in the current US Top 1000, including Emilie, Emmalee, Emmilee, and Emely. And, of course, dozens of other Em- names, like Emerson, have risen in recent years, too.
Today, actresses like Blunt and Deschanel, songs from Simon & Garfunkel and Lady Antebellum, and fictional characters on shows like Revenge, Pretty Little Liars, and Criminal Minds combine to make this something of an everywoman name.
All of this makes Emily an indisputable classic, as traditional and enduring as Elizabeth. The downside is that the name can feel anonymous; almost the Jennifer of the 1990s.
Today the name is fading, and probably seems ready for a rest. But it has achieved such traditional status that it will almost certainly remain in heavy use – and one day, even feel fashionable again.
This post originally published on July 31, 2012. It was revised and reposted on October 17, 2016.
Emily is lovely, I’ve had a love/hate thing for Emily all my life. I love Emily because she feels substantial yet is airy & light. She fits a lot of girls/women and I love that sort of versatility. If I can picture the name on a 100 year old & a newborn, all the better in my book.
I hate Emily because she looks & sounds very frilly.
So I suppose I come out looking more lover than hater. 😀
@Jordana: My surname is a three syllable ends in -ee sound monster too. It was featured during bad name week here, even. So not only does my surname feel like an airy monster, it screams ‘girly’ to a LOT of folks. And still, Cecily is our top choice should we have another girl. I wouldn’t let that -ee end stop me, I’d pair Cecily with some -a & -e enders though, and use those middles a lot! (our Cecily would be Cecily Pandora Jane).
Cecily Pandora Jane is very adorable
I really love Emily, but not its popularity. I adore Emily Dickinson (my daughter’s middle comes from my favorite poem of hers), and would consider it for a child despite its numbers if I didn’t have a cousin named Emily. I’ve known quite a number of Emilys over the years, too. The husband, of course, loves it. I’ve tried to convince him that Cecily is the new Emily, but he’s not biting.
Totally random reference, but wasn’t the little colonial sister taken by the Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus named Emily?
Since this is my name, I thought I should comment.
In tenth grade I had to write about my name for English class, and looking back on that assignment I still stand by everything I said. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with my name; love it because it’s a pretty name, hate it because the popularity makes others see it as boring. I could think of no better name for myself though. Emily is versatile; she can be anyone. Emily is melodious, delicate, and sweet. It’s feminine without being frilly. I like that Emily is timeless and not a name tied down to any one time period. There are really good reasons why this name is popular.
Emily, I was going to say something similar about the versatility. It’s a name that, to me, could be worn by anyone rather than conjuring a specific type.
My mom really thought I should name my twins “sweet names” like Emily and Claire. (She’s the only one I know personally who didn’t like the names we chose, at least at first.) I too think they’re sweet names, but they’re not my style. I do love Emilia, though, while Amelia leaves me luke warm.
The first Emily I ever met was when I was in 7th grade. It seemed very cool and just unusual enough. At the time (1982) it hit the sweet spot of fitting in *and* standing out. I still really like it (and Emma but not Amelia) although I’d never use it – I know too many, it’s too popular, and my name is Amy.
my good friend Amy named her daughter Emily, I think it’s rather cool.
I like it. I would actually consider setting fire to all my name nerd street cred for it… but our last name is three syllables and ends in y and I can’t really justify that. And no, Emma is NOT the same and I don’t want any. *cry*
I somehow hate Amelia and Emma yet love Emily. I can’t explain that at all. Surely if one ticks your boxes the others should? I do like Amy though, so maybe I just have an affection for those ill-fated -ys?
It does have a bit of that good-girl imagery to it. I think it was a Lucy Maud Montgomery novel where I first fell in love with it (Emily of New Moon, of course).
I generally like the vaguely Old West/Edwardian names that have fallen further down the charts, Martha/Jane/Susannah etc. But Emily still fits that feeling for me, it’s just so popular its a bit depressing.
I agree, I totally see this in that “old west/edwardian” vibe. Loved the Emily books also. I actually went to school with an Emily – she was kind and sweet. I honestly don’t think there’s a good reason not to like Emily except for how ever-present she is. I like Emmeline more, but I also like the approach people used to take. Naming your daughter Katherine meant she could go by Katherine, Kitty, Kathleen, Kathy, etc, not just one of them. so I see no reason why you can’t name a child Emmeline and she use Emily, Emma, Emilia, just as well.
Emily is beautiful and the more I say it the more I like it. I wanted to use it for a while because it sounds great with my last name, but alas, the name nerd in me couldn’t stomach how popular it is. I actually disliked it a lot as a child/teen. I even felt bad for the few that I knew.
Isn’t the doll in A Little Princess named Emily?
It’s ways seemed like a goody-two-shoes name to me. I don’t know why. It feels like Sarah – pretty, classic, off the charts in popularity, not for me.
*It always…
Sorry for all my ongoing typos. Smartphones aren’t so smart.
What a sweet, lovely name. There is nothing not to like about Emily. Of course, I volunteer with high school students and in a group of 40, there are 4 Emily’s. However, each girl just seems perfectly suited to the name. Unlike most names that were #1 once, Emily never sounds dated to me. It’s a little too familiar for me to ever use on our child, but I still really like it.
You mention that Emily does surface in medieval England, and I feel the urge to specify that the heroine of both Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale and its inspiration, Boccaccio’s Teseida, were named Emily/Emilia. Those 14th-century uses of the name make Emily a truly literary selection.
Thanks, Charlotte – that’s a great addition.