Emil
Masculine · “from Latin aemulus”
Emil is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 33,096 boys against 134 girls since 1880.
Emil is the Continental form of the old Roman family name Aemilius, worn smooth over two thousand years into four letters that need no explaining. It is the name of Rousseau's 1762 treatise on education, in its French spelling, and of Astrid Lindgren's Swedish farm boy in Emil i Lönneberga. Two syllables, no hard consonants, and it lands the same way in German, Swedish, Polish and Romanian mouths.
How old is the name Emil?
Emil was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Emil alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 10,000 people named Emil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emil most popular?
Emil peaked in 1881, reaching #90 nationally. Today it ranks #1267, 1,177 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Emil appears on these lists:
- Scandinavian names, cool by design
- German names, sturdy and storied
- Eastern European names in American use
- Names that belong entirely to the 1880s
- all guides
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Aemilius to Emil
The story of Emil
Aemilius was one of the great patrician family names of the Roman Republic, and like many such names it outlived the family and became a personal name across the Latin-speaking world. Christian use spread it further, and each language kept its own cut: Émile in French, Emilio in Italian and Spanish, Emil across German, Scandinavian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Romanian. The feminine line from the same root — Aemilia, Emilia, Emily — became far more widely used in English than the masculine one ever did. Emil arrived in the United States mainly with German and Scandinavian families, which is why it reads as a European import here while remaining thoroughly ordinary in Berlin or Stockholm.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Latin aemulus, 'rival' or 'striving to equal'
The usual reading traces the Roman gens name Aemilius to Latin aemulus, 'rival, one who emulates'. But Aemilius is very old — old enough that some scholars treat it as a pre-Latin family name whose original sense is no longer recoverable, with the aemulus link a later Roman explanation. Both readings are taken seriously.
How the name formed
- Aemilius
- Aemilianus
- Émile
- Emil
Related forms: Émile · Emilio · Emiel · Eemil · Emilis · Emílio
Pronouncing Emil
AY-meel
That is the German and Scandinavian pronunciation, stress on the first syllable. American speakers often say EE-mil or EM-il instead, and the French spelling Émile is ay-MEEL with the stress at the back. All are legitimate; it helps to pick one and say it first when introducing him.
Nicknames for Emil
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1916970 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #90reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- −17.6%155 in 2025, from 188
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.
Emil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Émile in French — same name
- Emilio in Italian, Spanish — same name
- Emiel in Dutch — same name
- Eemil in Finnish — spelling variant
- Emilis in Lithuanian — same name
- Emílio in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida.
Emils among us
people named Emil are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,020 born in 2025 was named Emil
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Emil 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 Emil is headed
Emil should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Emil beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Emil in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, spelled exactly as it sounds in most European languages — no silent letters, no doubled consonants, nothing to dictate twice.
- Travels unchanged through German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian, and has close cousins in French, Spanish and Italian.
- A documented line back to the Roman Republic, with continuous use ever since — nothing about it needs defending as new or invented.
- Short enough already that it needs no nickname, but the family forms Emi and Emo exist where one is wanted.
- Familiar by association: English speakers already know Emily and Emilia, which come from the same Latin root.
- Said quickly in American English, Emil and Emily are easily confused over the phone or in a noisy room. Expect to spell it and to correct the occasional assumption.
- The pronunciation genuinely varies by country — AY-meel, EE-mil, ay-MEEL. He will hear all three, and will have to choose which one is his.
- In the United States the name is most strongly represented among older generations, so some Americans will place it a few decades back — even while it sits among the most-used boys' names in Germany and Scandinavia right now.
- There are also Emile, Émile, Emilio and Emiel in circulation, so the bare four-letter spelling will sometimes be helpfully 'corrected' by people who mean well.
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What they receive
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Emil
Masculine · #1267 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,000 people named Emil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emil in 2025?
- Emil ranks #1267 among US boy names in 2025, with 155 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Emil?
- About 1 in every 11,020 US boys born in 2025 was named Emil — 155 in all.
- Will my child share the name Emil with classmates?
- Emil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Emil
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kiran#1267 · Noam#1267 · Aksel#1267 · Dion#1267 · Kenny#1267 · Jahseh#1267 · Slater#1267 · Shaurya#1267
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emil? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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