Head to head · Girls' names
Alexis vs Emerie
#554 vs #553 in 2025
Emerie is a whisker ahead (#553 vs #554 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Emerie is holding its place on the charts, Alexis is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Alexis and Emerie each lead 3 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1930s: Alexis #4331, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1940s: Alexis #1116, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1950s: Alexis #657, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1960s: Alexis #802, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1970s: Alexis #382, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1980s: Alexis #119, Emerie — — Alexis higher
- 1990s: Alexis #24, Emerie #10974 — Alexis higher
- 2000s: Alexis #11, Emerie #3777 — Alexis higher
- 2010s: Alexis #95, Emerie #954 — Alexis higher
- 2020s: Alexis #419, Emerie #574 — Alexis higher
Alexis stood higher in every recorded decade — 10 of 10.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Alexis | Emerie |
|---|---|---|
| 1930s | #4331 | — |
| 1940s | #1116 | — |
| 1950s | #657 | — |
| 1960s | #802 | — |
| 1970s | #382 | — |
| 1980s | #119 | — |
| 1990s | #24 | #10974 |
| 2000s | #11 | #3777 |
| 2010s | #95 | #954 |
| 2020s | #419 | #574 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Alexis
defender, helper
From the Greek verb alexein, to ward off or defend. The same verb sits at the front of Alexander, which pairs it with aner, 'man'.
Alexios → Alexius → Alexis
How it traveled
The name begins as Greek Alexios, latinized to Alexius and borne by several emperors of Byzantium, among them Alexios I Komnenos in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The legend of Saint Alexius, the beggar who lived unrecognised beneath his family's staircase, spread the name across medieval Europe in sermons and vernacular poems.
Emerie
from Germanic elements meaning 'power, ruler' joined to amal
The second element, ric, is agreed on: 'power' or 'ruler'. The first, amal, is read two ways — as an ordinary word for 'work' or 'labor', giving 'work-ruler', and as the name of the Amal, the ruling Gothic line, giving something closer to 'ruler of the Amals'. Both readings have serious support, and neither has pushed the other out.
Amalric → Emmerich → Aimery → Emery → Emerie
How it traveled
The root is the Germanic name Emmerich, which traveled west and turned up in Normandy as Aimery before crossing to England with the Normans, where it settled into Emery and then hardened into an English surname. The same name went east as well: Hungarian took it as Imre, honored in the eleventh-century royal saint Emeric, and Italian shaped it into Amerigo — the form that gave the Americas their name.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Alexis
uh-LEK-sis
In French the stress moves to the end and the final s goes silent: uh-lek-SEE. Both are correct for their language, and families with French ties often keep the French sound.
- Alex — The default short form for both boys and girls, and long established as a given name in its own right.
- Lexi — Informal, used mostly for girls; also registered on its own as a given name.
- Lex — Short and unisex, used more often by and for older speakers and in surname-style address.
- Sasha — The Russian diminutive of Aleksei and Aleksandr; used in Slavic families and, in English, as an independent name.
- Also Al.
Emerie
EM-uh-ree
Three syllables, stress on the first. Identical in sound to Emery and Emory; a two-syllable EM-ree also occurs in fast speech.
- Em — The default informal short form, shared with Emma, Emily and Emerson.
- Emmy — Informal, and long established as a given name in its own right.
- Emmie — Spelling of Emmy that matches the -ie ending of the full name.
- Emme — Used both as a nickname and, in recent decades, as a standalone name.
- Also Ree.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Alexis if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsAlexis is stepping back from its peak
- a name that feels very nowAlexis is stepping back from its peak
Choose Emerie if you want…
- a name on the way upup 46 places on the charts in five years
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 84% for Alexis
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Alexis
Strengths
- Recognized spelling in English — people write it correctly on the first hearing, without a spelling-out.
- An unbroken record from Byzantine Greek through medieval Latin and French to modern English.
- Several settled short forms already in use: Alex, Lexi, Lex.
To consider
- In the United States this spelling is given almost equally to boys and girls, so a boy named Alexis will meet forms, teachers and strangers who assume otherwise. In France, Russia and much of southern Europe the assumption runs the other way.
- It sits inside a crowded family — Alexa, Alexia, Alexus, Alexandra, Alexander — and Alexis is sometimes heard or written as one of those. The short form Alex belongs to all of them.
- Alexa is now also a household voice assistant, and the two names are near enough that the joke will occasionally surface, usually from adults rather than children.
Emerie
Strengths
- Sounds exactly like Emery, a spelling most Americans already recognize, so it is understood the first time it is said aloud.
- Comes with short forms in long use — Em, Emmy, Emme — none of which need explaining.
- Traceable in the written record for roughly a thousand years, from Germanic Emmerich through Norman Aimery to English Emery.
To consider
- The sound has at least four live spellings — Emery, Emory, Emerie, Emmerie — so expect to spell it out at the pharmacy and on forms, for life. Choosing the -ie form means accepting that most people's first guess will be Emery.
- Emery is given to boys and girls alike in the US. The -ie ending reads as a girl's name to most American eyes, but the spoken name carries no such signal, so a substitute teacher may guess either way.
- It sits inside a crowded Em- family — Emma, Emily, Emerson, Emmy. A child may not meet another Emerie, but she will likely answer to Em alongside two or three others.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Alexis
84%chance Alexis feels dated by 2040
Alexis is coming down from a big peak (#3 in 1999). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Emerie
40%chance Emerie feels dated by 2040
Emerie sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Alexis and Emerie in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Alexis and Emerie?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Names of the '80s and '90s, currently resting
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- all guides
Where Alexis and Emerie each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Alexis or Emerie — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Alexis or Emerie?
- Emerie, in 2025: Emerie ranked #553 with 548 babies; Alexis ranked #554 with 547 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Alexis or Emerie?
- Emerie. Over the last five years Alexis moved down 243 places; Emerie moved up 46 places.
- Which is the older name, Alexis or Emerie?
- Alexis entered the US charts in 1931; Emerie entered the US charts in 1994. On the American record, Alexis is the older name.
- How many people are named Alexis and Emerie?
- About 339,000 people named Alexis are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 6,800 people named Emerie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Alexiss or Emeries in the classroom?
- Alexis will almost certainly be the only one in school. Emerie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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