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Emilse vs Emily

American parents have registered 898,296 Emilys since 1880, against 35 Emilses. Emily is still ahead, with 5,461 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Emilse against Emily, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Emilse Emily

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

Emily 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 1991, when Emilse had 17 and Emily had 20,345.

Side by side

  Emilse Emily
Total US births 35898,296
Most in one year 1726,587
Babies in 2025 under 55,461
Estimated living today 30815,000
Median age today 2727
Peak year 19911999
Best rank 5,399th girls1st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked34th
First recorded 19911880
Girls / boys 35 / 0896,487 / 1,809

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.

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