Emylee
Feminine
Emylee changes a vowel and swaps the ending on one of the most-used women's names in America, and neither change is audible. The Roman family name underneath it is built on a word about competition, not about diligence.
How old is the name Emylee?
Emylee first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Emylee alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Emylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Emylee most popular?
Emylee peaked in 2005, reaching #3587 nationally. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aemilia to Emylee
The story of Emylee
The Latin aemulus means rivalrous, and it is not a compliment in the modern sense: an aemulus is somebody striving against you, and the noun aemulatio covered both healthy competition and outright envy. English took it as emulate, which now means to copy admiringly and has lost the competitive edge entirely — a shift that happened as the word moved from describing a contest to describing a model. The Roman family name is generally taken to be built on the same root, and Roman clan names of that kind describe an ancestor rather than the people carrying it. The popular gloss about industriousness or eagerness seems to have entered name dictionaries in the twentieth century, and there is nothing in the Latin to support it.
Meaningscholars disagree
from a Roman family name built on a word about rivalry
The Aemilii were a major Roman clan and the usual derivation connects their name to aemulus, meaning rivalrous or emulous — the source of English emulate. The gloss about industriousness that circulates widely is a later invention with nothing behind it.
How the name formed
- Aemilia
- Emily
- Emylee
Pronouncing Emylee
EM-uh-lee
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The y sits in a syllable that reduces almost to nothing, and the double e ending says what a y would have said.
Nicknames for Emylee
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 200541 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3587reached in 2005
- Change vs 2019
- −25.0%6 in 2020, from 8
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.
Emylees among us
people named Emylee 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
Emylee 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 Emmy both detach at once and need no explanation.
- Front stress on three syllables is a comfortable and familiar rhythm.
- The sound is entirely familiar, so nobody has to be taught it.
- Emily is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- Both changes are inaudible, so the spelling must be given aloud every time.
- The name has been near the top of the lists for a generation, so the sound is very common.
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Emylee
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Emylees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Emylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Emylee in 2025?
- Emylee is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Emylee with classmates?
- Emylee 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 Emylee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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