Empress
Feminine · “female ruler of an empire”
Empress descends from the Latin imperator — a commander — which was a military title before it was an imperial one.
How old is the name Empress?
Empress first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Empress is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,700 people named Empress are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Empress most popular?
Empress peaked in 2019, reaching #1423 nationally. Today it ranks #2298, 875 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From imperare to Empress
The story of Empress
Imperator was a battlefield acclamation, shouted by soldiers to a victorious general, and Augustus took it as a permanent title — which is how a military honor became the word for an emperor. Empress entered American given-name use recently and appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
female ruler of an empire
From the Old French emperesse, from the Latin imperator, 'commander', from imperare, 'to command'. Roman generals were hailed imperator by their troops long before it became the emperor's title. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- imperare
- imperator
- emperesse
- Empress
Related forms: Impératrice · Imperatrix
Pronouncing Empress
EM-pruss
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Empress
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
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 2019157 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1423reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −18.6%79 in 2025, from 97
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.
Empress in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Impératrice in French — related form
- Imperatrix in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Georgia, New York.
Empresss among us
people named Empress are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 20,345 born in 2025 was named Empress
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 Marne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Empress's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marne climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marne's path sketches the road Empress is walking now.
Empress 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 Empress is headed
Empress should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Empress beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Empress in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That emperor began as a battlefield shout is a first-rate etymology.
- Emmy is available as a short form with a real record.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is a title and carries a very large claim.
- It is an ordinary English noun and reads as one.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Empress
Feminine · #2298 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Empresss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Empress are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Empress in 2025?
- Empress ranks #2298 among US girl names in 2025, with 79 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Empress?
- About 1 in every 20,345 US girls born in 2025 was named Empress — 79 in all.
- Will my child share the name Empress with classmates?
- Empress will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Empress
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shyla#2298 · Skylah#2298 · Therese#2298 · Jennie#2298 · Shira#2298 · Jahzara#2298 · Emelyn#2298 · Khelani#2298
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Empress? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Empress and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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