Emily
Meaning of Emily
Emily is the English form of the Latin Aemilia, the feminine of the Roman family name Aemilius. Name dictionaries generally trace the root to the Latin aemulus, meaning “rival” or “one who tries to equal or excel,” which is why the name is often glossed as “industrious” or “eager.” It is pronounced EM-uh-lee.
Two writers are its best-known bearers. Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, and the American poet Emily Dickinson, little known in her own lifetime, is now counted among the most important voices in American poetry. The name also belonged to Emily Wilding Davison, the British suffragette who died after being struck by the king’s horse at the 1913 Derby.
In the United States the name climbed sharply from the 1970s, entered the top ten in 1991, and then held first place for twelve straight years, from 1996 through 2007. It has eased since: 5,451 girls were given the name in 2025, when it ranked 34th, still comfortably within the top fifty.
Pronunciation
American English
- Pronunced as EM-uh-lee (/ˈɛməli/)
British English
- Pronunced as EM-uh-lee (/ˈɛmili/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Emily
| Emily Ratajkowski is an American model and actress, born in London and raised in California, who gained global fame after a 2012 Treats magazine cover led to music videos including Blurred Lines. |
| Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet who was little known in her lifetime but is now celebrated as one of the most important voices in American poetry. |
| Emily Wilding Davison was a British suffragette who fought for votes for women, endured repeated arrests, hunger strikes, and force feeding, and died after being struck by King George V's horse at the 1913 Derby. |
| Emily Blunt is a British actress with a Golden Globe and two SAG Awards, multiple Oscar and BAFTA nominations, and a 2020 Forbes ranking among the highest paid actresses. |
| Emily Brontë - Emily Jane Bronte was an English novelist and poet best known for Wuthering Heights and for coauthoring Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell with her sisters Charlotte and Anne. |
| Emily Kame Kngwarreye - Emily Kam Kngwarray was an Aboriginal Australian artist from Alhalker whose powerful, distinctive work reshaped contemporary Aboriginal art and earned worldwide acclaim. |
| Emily Jordan Osment is an American actress and singer from Los Angeles who began as a child star, co-starred as Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2 and Spy Kids 3, and became widely known as Lilly Truscott on Hannah Montana and its movie. |
| Emily Murphy was a Canadian activist and author who became the first female magistrate in Canada in 1916 and helped establish that women were qualified to sit in the Senate. |
| Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian novelist known for Station Eleven adapted for HBO Max, The Glass Hotel a 2020 Obama favorite, and Sea of Tranquility a New York Times bestseller. |
| Emily Bazelon is an American journalist and author, a New York Times Magazine staff writer and Yale Law School fellow who cohosts the Slate podcast Political Gabfest and wrote the bestselling, award winning books Sticks and Stones and Charged. |
| Emily Margaret Watson is an English actress who began on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and earned two Academy Award nominations for Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie. |
| Emily Stannard was a British still life painter of the Norwich School and, alongside her niece Eloise Harriet Stannard, one of the most accomplished British female still life artists of the 19th century. |
| Tony nominated American actress and singer Emily Skinner, also known as Emily Scott Skinner, has starred in numerous Broadway shows and performs in concerts and recordings worldwide. |
| Emily Hale was an American speech and drama teacher and longtime muse of T. S. Eliot, with 1,131 of his letters to her opened at Princeton University Library in 2020. |
