Emmalee
Feminine · “whole”
Emmalee sits between two names and takes something from each: Emma, a Germanic name meaning whole, and Emily, a Roman family name. The -lee ending is American and belongs to neither.
How old is the name Emmalee?
Emmalee first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Emmalee alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 8,700 people named Emmalee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emmalee most popular?
Emmalee peaked in 2005, reaching #634 nationally. Today it ranks #3296, 2,662 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Where it comes from
From Emma to Emmalee
The story of Emmalee
Emma came to England with a Norman queen in the eleventh century and has been in use ever since; Emily arrived from the Roman Aemilia by way of Italian and French. Both became extremely common in English-speaking countries in the late twentieth century, at which point families looking for a version of the sound that was not already taken produced Emmalee, Emmaleigh and Emmalyn — Emma at the front and a fashionable ending behind.
Meaningscholars disagree
whole, universal
If the name is built on Emma, the meaning is Germanic: ermen, whole or universal. If it is a respelling of Emily, the source is the Roman family name Aemilius, whose own derivation is disputed and often connected to a word for rival. The spelling stands between them.
How the name formed
- Emma
- Emmalee
Related forms: Emily · Emmalyn · Emma
Pronouncing Emmalee
EM-uh-lee
Three syllables, first stressed. Identical in sound to Emily for most speakers.
Nicknames for Emmalee
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 2005441 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #634reached in 2005
- Change vs 2023
- −56.5%47 in 2025, from 108
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.
Emmalee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Emily in English — related form
- Emmalyn in English — related form
- Emma in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Emmalees among us
people named Emmalee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,197 born in 2025 was named Emmalee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Emmalee
- #3296
- Emmalee on the 2025 chart
- #900
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Emmalee went to 47 girls in 2025, but Emalee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 60, which makes it the 900th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,396 places above the chart.
- Emmalee47
- Emalee13
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 34,197 for Emmalee 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 Kia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Emmalee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kia climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kia's path sketches the road Emmalee is walking now.
Emmalee 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 Emmalee is headed
Emmalee is easing off slowly — about 28% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Emmalee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Emmalee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Emma sits inside it as a complete, entirely familiar name.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Two documented and quite different name histories stand behind it.
- It sounds identical to Emily, which is far more common, so it will be written that way.
- Emmalee, Emmaleigh and Emmalie are all in use and none is dominant.
- The Em short form is shared with so many current names that it will not distinguish her.
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What they receive
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Emmalee
Feminine · #3296 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emmalees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Emmalee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Emmalee?
- Emmalee is the most-used spelling in US records — 47 of the 60 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Emalee.
- How popular is the name Emmalee in 2025?
- Emmalee ranks #3296 among US girl names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Emmalee?
- About 1 in every 34,197 US girls born in 2025 was named Emmalee — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Emmalee with classmates?
- Emmalee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Emmalee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Neva#3296 · Aleyda#3296 · Kaylor#3296 · Nalia#3296 · Anyeli#3296 · Izabel#3296 · Esmee#3296 · Rhoda#3296
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emmalee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Emmalee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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