Emily
Emily is a girls' name of Latin origin meaning “rival, industrious, striving.” It ranked #14 in the United States in 2025. The English form of Aemilia, from the Roman gens Aemilia.
how do you pronounce Emily?
EM-ih-lee
Hear it spoken aloud with our AI pronunciation tool.
what does Emily mean?
The name Emily means “rival, industrious, striving.” It comes from the Latin language tradition.
The English form of Aemilia, from the Roman gens Aemilia. It was the most popular girl's name in the United States for over a decade and is associated with poets Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë.
where does the name Emily come from?
The English form of the Roman family name Aemilius, by way of the French Émilie. The root aemulus means rival or striving, though the industrious gloss now commonly attached to it has migrated across from the unrelated Germanic Amelia.
the history of Emily
Three of the nineteenth century's most consequential women in English carried it: Emily Brontë, who wrote Wuthering Heights; Emily Dickinson, whose poems were largely unpublished in her lifetime; and Emily Davison, killed at the 1913 Derby campaigning for women's suffrage. The name led the American charts every year from 1996 to 2007.
how popular is this name?
| Year | Rank |
|---|---|
| 2024 | #14 |
| 2023 | #15 |
| 2022 | #16 |
| 2021 | #17 |
| 2020 | #18 |
Source: SSA National Baby Names Dataset
what are the nicknames and variants of Emily?
Nicknames
Variants around the world
who are famous people named Emily?
- Emily Dickinson
- Emily Brontë
- Emily Blunt
what names are similar to Emily?
what names go well with Emily?
Sibling names that share Emily's rhythm and register without echoing it too closely.
Last reviewed April 30, 2026 · Curated by HushName editorial
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