Emrys
Masculine · “immortal”
Emrys is given to both — 1,310 boys and 341 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Emrys is the Welsh form of Ambrosius, a name the Romans brought to Britain and the Welsh kept for themselves. It belongs to the same story as a hillfort in Snowdonia — Dinas Emrys, the fort of Emrys — and to Myrddin Emrys, the name Welsh tradition gave the figure English readers know as Merlin. Two syllables, both crisp, with that Welsh y that lands somewhere between a short i and a long e.
How old is the name Emrys?
Emrys first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Emrys is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,300 people named Emrys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emrys most popular?
Emrys peaked in 2024, reaching #1140 nationally. Today it ranks #1260, 120 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Emrys appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Ambrosios to Emrys
The story of Emrys
The Greek word ambrosios passed into Latin as the name Ambrosius, and Ambrosius traveled to Roman Britain, where Welsh speakers reshaped it into Emrys. Welsh tradition attached it to Ambrosius Aurelianus, remembered as Emrys Wledig, and to the hillfort of Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd; in the twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae gave the prophet Merlin the second name Ambrosius, which Welsh sources render as Myrddin Emrys. The name stayed in steady Welsh use as a given name and a surname through the modern era, while English speakers kept the older Latin form as Ambrose. Its arrival on American records is much more recent, and its rise here is still gathering.
Meaning
immortal
Emrys comes from Latin Ambrosius, itself from Greek ambrosios, 'immortal, belonging to the immortals' — the same root as ambrosia, the food of the Greek gods.
How the name formed
- Ambrosios
- Ambrosius
- Emrys
Related forms: Ambrose · Ambrosius · Ambroise · Ambrogio · Ambrosio · Ambroży
Pronouncing Emrys
EM-riss
Stress on the first syllable. In Welsh the final y is a sound English lacks, closer to a clipped 'iss' than to 'ease'; EM-reez is a common English guess you may hear.
Nicknames for Emrys
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 2024185 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1140reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −15.1%157 in 2025, from 185
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.
Emrys in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ambrose in English — same name
- Ambrosius in Latin — same name
- Ambroise in French — same name
- Ambrogio in Italian — same name
- Ambrosio in Spanish — same name
- Ambroży in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Emryss among us
people named Emrys are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,879 born in 2025 was named Emrys
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 Bernell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Emrys's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bernell climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bernell's path sketches the road Emrys is walking now.
Emrys is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Emrys is headed
Emrys looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 34% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Emrys beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Emrys in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carries a documented line back through Latin Ambrosius to Greek — a meaning parents can state plainly rather than debate.
- Has an English twin in Ambrose and cousins in French, Italian and Spanish, so the name is recognizable across languages.
- Short, two syllables, with the ready nickname Em and no long form to grow into.
- Still uncommon in American classrooms, so a child is unlikely to share it with anyone.
- Outside Wales the spelling is not widely known, so expect it to be repeated, spelled out, and occasionally written Emris or Emerys.
- The Welsh final y trips up English speakers; you will be correcting EM-reez for years, gently.
- For readers who know Arthurian material, the name arrives attached to Merlin. Some parents love that; others would rather their child not be greeted with a wizard joke.
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What they receive
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Emrys
Masculine · #1260 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Emryss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Emrys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emrys in 2025?
- Emrys ranks #1260 among US boy names in 2025, with 157 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Emrys?
- About 1 in every 10,879 US boys born in 2025 was named Emrys — 157 in all.
- Will my child share the name Emrys with classmates?
- Emrys will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Emrys
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Monroe#1260 · Jordy#1260 · Riot#1263 · Lael#1263 · Ripley#1263 · Elyas#1263 · Yohan#1256 · Malaki#1256
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Emrys? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Emrys and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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