Emelin
Feminine · “Germanic "whole”
Emma carries a fragment of a god's name. The Germanic element ermen or irmin, meaning whole or universal, is also the name of the deity behind the Irminsul, the great pillar Charlemagne cut down in 772 — and Emma, Emmeline and Irma are all worn-down pieces of names built on it.
How old is the name Emelin?
Emelin first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Emelin alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Emelin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emelin most popular?
Emelin peaked in 2004, reaching #2808 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 4,683 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Where it comes from
From irmin to Emelin
The story of Emelin
Charlemagne destroyed the Irminsul, a great wooden pillar at the center of Saxon religious practice, in 772, at the start of a thirty-year campaign to conquer and convert the Saxons. The word survived in personal names precisely because Germanic naming used divine and dynastic elements freely: ermen appears in Ermengarde, Ermentrude and Ermenrich, and the shortening habit reduced all of them to Emma and Irma. The Normans brought the diminutive Emeline to England, where it was common in the Middle Ages, faded, and returned in the nineteenth century as Emmeline. The American figures for Emelin peak in 2004, largely with Hispanic families using the shorter spelling.
Meaning
Germanic "whole, universal", with a French diminutive ending
Emma began as a short form of longer Germanic names in ermen or irmin — Ermengarde, Ermentrude, Irmgard — meaning whole, entire or universal. Emmeline and Emelin are Norman French diminutives of the same stem, formed with the suffix -line. The element is also the name of a Saxon deity, or at least of the sacred pillar dedicated to one; scholars differ on whether Irmin was a god or an epithet.
How the name formed
- irmin
- Emma
- Emeline
- Emelin
Related forms: Emmeline · Émeline · Irma
Pronouncing Emelin
EM-uh-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. Spanish-speaking families often say eh-meh-LEEN with final stress; both are in use, and the spelling does not decide.
Nicknames for Emelin
Moderate
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 200662 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2808reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −12.5%14 in 2025, from 16
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.
Emelin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Emmeline in English — spelling variant
- Émeline in French — same name
- Irma in German — related form
Emelins among us
people named Emelin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Emelin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Emelin
- #7491
- Emelin on the 2025 chart
- #803
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Emelin went to 14 girls in 2025, but Emelyn, Emmelyn and Emelynn and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 157, which makes it the 803rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,688 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 10,237 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Emelin 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
The Fermina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Emelin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Fermina climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Fermina's path sketches the road Emelin is walking now.
Emelin 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
Emelin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Emelin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It descends from one of the oldest continuously used Germanic name elements.
- Emma and Emmy are immediate short forms needing no explanation.
- It is soft and current-sounding while being genuinely old.
- Emmeline, Emeline and Emelyn all compete for a similar sound.
- English and Spanish speakers stress it differently.
- It is easily confused with Emily and Emmalyn in speech.
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What they receive
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Emelin
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emelins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Emelin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Emelin?
- Emelin is one of 5 recorded spellings. Emelyn is the more common one — 79 births in 2025 against 14 for Emelin.
- How popular is the name Emelin in 2025?
- Emelin ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Emelin?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Emelin — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Emelin with classmates?
- Emelin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Emelin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emelin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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