Ema
Feminine · “whole”
Ema is Emma with one letter fewer — the everyday spelling across Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian and Romanian, and separately a name written in Japanese. Two open syllables, nothing in it to trip over in any of those languages. In American records it has kept a long, unbroken presence rather than arriving in one fashionable burst.
How old is the name Ema?
Ema first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Ema alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 4,200 people named Ema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ema most popular?
Ema peaked in 1883, reaching #692 nationally. Today it ranks #1348, 656 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Ema appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Ermin- / Irmin- (Old Germanic name element) to Ema
The story of Ema
The Germanic element ermin, meaning whole or universal, sat at the front of a great many early medieval names, and Emma began life as the short form that stood in for all of them. It traveled with Norman and German households into England and across Europe, and in the Slavic and Romance languages that write what they hear, the doubled letter fell away: Ema is the ordinary spelling in Prague, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Bucharest. Quite independently, Ema is also a Japanese given name, written with kanji chosen by the family. So one spelling arrives in the United States by at least two roads, and both are genuine.
Meaning
whole, universal — from the Germanic element ermin/irmin
That reading covers the European Ema, which is the same name as Emma: originally a short form of longer Germanic names beginning Ermin- or Irmin-. Japanese Ema is a separate name reached by a different road, and its meaning depends entirely on the kanji a family chooses, so no single translation covers it. The Japanese word ema (絵馬) also names the small wooden votive plaques hung at Shinto shrines.
How the name formed
- Ermin- / Irmin-Old Germanic name element
- Irmingard, Ermintrude and similar full names
- Emma
- Ema
Related forms: Emma · Ema · Ema · Ema · エマ · Emmi
Pronouncing Ema
EM-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like Emma. Czech, Croatian and Japanese speakers give the first vowel a cleaner EH and the two syllables more equal weight. Expect an occasional EE-mah from someone reading it cold for the first time.
Nicknames for Ema
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 2025164 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #692reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- +13.9%164 in 2025, from 144
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Emma in English — spelling variant
- Ema in Czech and Slovak — same name
- Ema in Croatian and Slovene — same name
- Ema in Romanian — same name
- エマ in Japanese — transliteration
- Emmi in Finnish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Emas among us
people named Ema are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,800 born in 2025 was named Ema
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ema
- #1348
- Ema on the 2025 chart
- #5
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ema went to 164 girls in 2025, but Emma is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 12,923, which makes it the 5th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,343 places above the chart.
- Emma12,754
- Ema164
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 124 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,800 for Ema itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ema 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ema is headed
Ema should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ema beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ema in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spells and pronounces itself in Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese, and transliterates cleanly into Japanese.
- Three letters, two syllables — quick to write, quick to say, and legible at any age from a name tag to a signature.
- Inherits ready-made short forms from Emma: Em, Emmy, Ems, all already in real use.
- A long continuous record in the United States rather than a single spike, so it has never sounded either brand-new or dated.
- The correction to Emma will be lifelong. Forms, teachers and autocorrect will all add the second m, and your daughter will learn early to say "Ema, one m."
- Emma and Emily are heavily used in English-speaking countries, so while Ema itself stays rare, the sound of it will not be. A room may hold several children who all answer to Em.
- The two origins can pull in different directions: a Japanese family and a Croatian family are both spelling their own name here, and neither reading is more correct than the other.
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What they receive
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Ema
Feminine · #1348 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Ema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ema?
- Ema is one of 2 recorded spellings. Emma is the more common one — 12,754 births in 2025 against 164 for Ema.
- How popular is the name Ema in 2025?
- Ema ranks #1348 among US girl names in 2025, with 164 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ema?
- About 1 in every 9,800 US girls born in 2025 was named Ema — 164 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ema with classmates?
- Ema will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ema
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Farah#1348 · Gianni#1348 · Braylee#1348 · Devorah#1352 · Lillianna#1352 · Leora#1352 · Annabella#1352 · Lexie#1352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ema? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ema and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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