Humanverse

Emersen vs Emery

American parents have registered 64,249 Emerys since 1880, against 1,175 Emersens. Emery is still ahead, with 3,513 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Emersen against Emery, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Emersen Emery

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Emery has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Emersen had 60 and Emery had 533.

Side by side

  Emersen Emery
Total US births 1,17564,249
Most in one year 683,513
Babies in 2025 463,513
Estimated living today 1,20055,000
Median age today 128
Peak year 20082025
Best rank 2,887th girls74th girls
Rank in 2025 3,975th74th
First recorded 19981880
Girls / boys 1,039 / 13643,837 / 20,412

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Emersens alive today are over 12; half the Emerys are over 8. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Emersen and Emery.