Emery
Meaning of Emery
Emery began as an English surname, taken from the medieval personal name Emery, which comes from Old French Amauri and ultimately from the Germanic name Amalric. Name dictionaries generally explain the Germanic elements as amal, meaning “work” or “industry,” and ric, meaning “power” or “ruler,” so the name is usually glossed as “industrious ruler” or “work-power.” It has been used for both boys and girls in the United States, though today it is given far more often to girls.
It is pronounced EM-uh-ree, with the stress on the first syllable — the same in American and British English.
The surname is the name’s older association: Sir Emery Walker, the English engraver, photographer and printer, was a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. In American sport, Emery Moorehead was a tight end on the Chicago Bears team that won the 1985 Super Bowl. As a first name, Emery has no single dominant literary or religious bearer.
For most of the twentieth century it was rare for girls: 29 received the name in 1990, when it ranked 3,623rd. It climbed steeply through the 2000s and 2010s, reached a peak of 70th in 2023 and again in 2024, and stood at 74th in 2025, when 3,208 girls were given the name.
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as EM-uh-ree (/ˈɛməri/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Emery
| Emery Neal Brown is an American statistician, computational neuroscientist, and anesthesiologist who is a professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT, a practicing anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and director of the Harvard and MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. |
| Emery Chance Lehman is an American speed skater who took up the sport at nine to improve his hockey and represented the United States at the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Winter Olympics. |
| Emery Andrew Rovenstine was a pioneering American anesthesiologist who created the first academic anesthesiology department at Bellevue Hospital and advanced cyclopropane anesthesia and therapeutic nerve blocks. |
| Sir Emery Walker was an English engraver, photographer, and printer who helped lead the Arts and Crafts movement through the Art Workers Guild, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. |
| Emery Davis Potter was an Ohio lawyer and politician who served two nonconsecutive terms in Congress in the mid 1800s. |
| Emery Hetrick - Emery S. Hetrick was an American psychiatrist and cofounder of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which established the Harvey Milk High School in New York City. |
| Emery Moorehead is an American former NFL tight end and wide receiver who played for the Giants, Broncos, and Bears, won a Super Bowl with the 1985 Bears, starred at Colorado, and was a sixth round pick in 1977. |
| Emery Dobyns is an American recording engineer, producer, and songwriter based in Nashville, previously in New York City. |
| Emery Blagdon - Emery O. Blagdon was an American artist. |
| Emery Thomas Knudson served on the Idaho Supreme Court from 1959 to 1965, including as chief justice from 1963 to 1965, after earning his law degree from the University of Idaho in 1921. |
| Emery G Barrette was an American United Methodist Church minister and politician. |
| Emery Ace Adams was an American Negro leagues pitcher who played from 1932 to 1947 for the Memphis Red Sox, New York Black Yankees, and Baltimore Elite Giants. |
| Emery Hicks was an American and Canadian football player who starred at the University of Kansas and later played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger Cats, winning the 1972 Grey Cup with Hamilton. |
| Kenneth Emery Nix was an American quarterback who played in the NFL for the New York Giants in 1943 and 1946, played college football for the TCU Horned Frogs, and served in the United States Marine Corps during World War Two. |
| Émery Lalonde Sr. - Emery Lalonde was a Quebec merchant and Conservative who represented Vaudreuil in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1871 to 1882. |
