Emogene
Feminine
Imogen began as a printer's mistake. Shakespeare wrote a play with a heroine called Innogen — the name appears that way in his source and in an eyewitness account of a performance — and the compositor who set the First Folio misread the double n as an m. The error has been the name ever since.
How old is the name Emogene?
Emogene first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Emogene alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 900 people named Emogene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emogene most popular?
Emogene peaked in 1927, reaching #413 nationally. See the whole 1927 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Innogen to Emogene
The story of Emogene
The evidence for the misprint is unusually good: a contemporary saw the play performed and wrote the name down as Innogen, and the name appears that way in Holinshed's chronicles, which Shakespeare was using. The First Folio has Imogen, and the Folio is what everyone read for three hundred years. So one compositor's slip created a name that is now in use across the English-speaking world. Emogene is the American respelling of it, with the ending lengthened in the style of its period.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Innogen is a Celtic name, generally connected to a word for a girl or a maiden, and it appears in the chronicles Shakespeare drew on. Imogen, the misprint, means nothing at all — there is no word behind it, because it was never a word. Attempts to derive it from the Latin imago, an image, came afterward and are attempts to make sense of a typographical accident. The e in Emogene is a further American layer on top.
How the name formed
- Innogen
- Imogen
- Emogene
Pronouncing Emogene
EM-uh-jeen
EM-uh-jeen, three syllables, stress at the front, the g soft. Imogen is IM-uh-jen with a shorter final syllable, so this spelling has lengthened the ending as well as changed the first vowel — the two names are audibly different.
Nicknames for Emogene
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 1928251 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #413reached in 1927
- Change vs 2019
- +20.0%6 in 2020, from 5
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.
Emogenes among us
people named Emogene 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
Emogene 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
- The origin is documented down to a compositor's error, which is a genuinely remarkable thing to be able to say.
- Gene is available inside it as a complete short form.
- Three syllables with a firm front stress, which carries a short surname well.
- Imogen is the standard spelling and this will be corrected toward it, though the two are said differently.
- The name means nothing, and the honest account is that it began as a mistake — which some families find delightful and others do not.
- It belongs firmly to an earlier American century and has not returned.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Emogene to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Emogene? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Emogene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Emogenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Emogene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emogene in 2025?
- Emogene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Emogene with classmates?
- Emogene 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 Emogene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Emogene and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle