Emerald
Feminine · Greek roots · “emerald”
Emerald is given to both — 9,518 girls and 538 boys since 1880. See Emerald as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Emerald arrived in English the way most jewels did — through French traders and Latin scribes — and it has been the name of the green stone since the Middle Ages. Said aloud it opens on the same warm Em- that English speakers have been shortening for centuries, then closes on a consonant cluster that keeps it from sounding like anything else. It has appeared quietly in American records since the early twentieth century and is climbing now.
How old is the name Emerald?
Emerald first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Emerald alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 9,200 people named Emerald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emerald most popular?
Emerald peaked in 2024, reaching #708 nationally. Today it ranks #741, 33 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Emerald appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From smaragdos (Greek) to Emerald
The story of Emerald
The Greeks called the green stone smaragdos, a word they seem to have taken from further east; Latin turned it into smaragdus, and medieval French softened that into esmeralde, which is where English got emerald. From the same French word Spanish and Portuguese made Esmeralda, and that form became a given name long before the English one did — most famously as the name of the dancer in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, published in 1831. The Greek line kept its own names too, Smaragda and Smaragdi, still in use. English-speaking parents came late to it, using Emerald in the plain word form, alongside the May birthstone, the emerald green of paint boxes, the Emerald Isle, and L. Frank Baum's Emerald City.
Meaning
emerald — the green gemstone
The word itself is not in doubt. Its deeper trail is: English emerald comes from Old French esmeralde and Latin smaragdus, from Greek smaragdos, which linguists trace back through Semitic languages, with Sanskrit marakata standing nearby. Where exactly the chain begins is not settled, but everything from Greek onward is.
How the name formed
- smaragdosGreek
- smaragdusLatin
- esmeraldeOld French
- Esmeralda
- Emerald
Related forms: Esmeralda · Esmeralda · Émeraude · Smeralda · Smaragda · Smaranda
Pronouncing Emerald
EM-er-uhld
Stress on the first syllable. In quick American speech it often flattens to two syllables, EM-ruhld — both are the same word and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Emerald
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 2023377 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #708reached in 2024
- Change vs 2023
- −2.7%367 in 2025, from 377
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.
Emerald in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Esmeralda in Spanish — related form
- Esmeralda in Portuguese — related form
- Émeraude in French — same name
- Smeralda in Italian — related form
- Smaragda in Greek — related form
- Smaranda in Romanian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Emeralds among us
people named Emerald are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,379 born in 2025 was named Emerald
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Breann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Emerald's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Breann climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Breann's path sketches the road Emerald is walking now.
Emerald is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Emerald is headed
Emerald looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Emerald beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Emerald in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is an ordinary English word, so nobody has to be taught it — a rarity among uncommon names.
- Pronunciation is transparent on sight; no correction needed at roll call, in a coffee shop, or over the phone.
- Ready-made short forms already in wide use — Em, Emmy, Emmie — with no need to invent one.
- Travels well: Esmeralda, Émeraude, Smaragda and Smaranda give it a recognizable relative in several languages.
- A documented word-line running from Greek through Latin and French into English, and a jewel name in continuous use for centuries.
- The Em- nicknames land in very crowded territory. Called Em or Emmy, a child may be one of several in a room full of Emmas, Emilys and Emmetts, and the full name is what makes her distinct.
- It is a word before it is a name, so some people will hear the gemstone, the color, the May birthstone or the Emerald Isle first. That fades fast with acquaintances and never quite does with strangers.
- Right now it is unusual enough that she is unlikely to share it with a classmate — but the trend line is upward, so the name she grows up with may be more familiar than the one you are choosing today.
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What they receive
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Emerald
Feminine · Greek roots · #741 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emeralds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,200 people named Emerald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emerald in 2025?
- Emerald ranks #741 among US girl names in 2025, with 367 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Emerald?
- About 1 in every 4,379 US girls born in 2025 was named Emerald — 367 in all.
- Will my child share the name Emerald with classmates?
- Emerald will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Emerald
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kensley#741 · Penny#740 · Valery#743 · Kiana#743 · Lacey#738 · Veda#738 · Maisy#745 · Araceli#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emerald? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Emerald and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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