Emmer
Feminine
Emmer is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,155 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Emmer is a wheat — one of the oldest ones there is, gathered wild before anybody farmed anything and then domesticated at the very beginning of agriculture. It fed Egypt and Mesopotamia for thousands of years before the modern wheats displaced it, and it is only now being grown again by people who like the taste.
How old is the name Emmer?
Emmer was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Emmer alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 300 people named Emmer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emmer most popular?
Emmer peaked in 1885, reaching #438 nationally. See the whole 1885 chart.
Where it comes from
From Emma to Emmer
The story of Emmer
A final r in nineteenth-century American records very often spells a final a. In much of the American south and in a great deal of English speech generally, the r at the end of a word is not pronounced, and speakers who write by ear will use the two letters interchangeably: Emma and Emmer, sofa and sofer, Anna and Anner. The confusion runs both ways and is thoroughly documented in dialect studies and in the census returns themselves, where the same woman can appear under both spellings in successive decades. So a name like this one is most likely not a name at all but a familiar name written down by somebody who was listening rather than reading.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a name it is almost certainly not the cereal. The likeliest explanation is a spelling convention discussed below, which would make it a written form of a much more familiar name rather than a word in its own right.
How the name formed
- Emma
- Emmer
Pronouncing Emmer
EM-ur
Two syllables with the stress at the front. In non-rhotic speech the final r is not sounded at all, which makes the name indistinguishable from Emma.
Nicknames for Emmer
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #438reached in 1885
- Change vs 1961
- −16.7%5 in 1963, from 6
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.
Emmers among us
people named Emmer are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Emmer sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Em and Emmie are ready short forms shared with much commoner names.
- It is short, easy and completely unambiguous in sound.
- It is genuinely rare while sounding entirely familiar.
- It will be read as a misspelling of a very common name, and may well be one.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- The generation that used it is now very old.
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What they receive
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Emmer
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Emmers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Emmer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emmer in 2025?
- Emmer is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Emmer with classmates?
- Emmer will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emmer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Emmer and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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