Humanverse

Emma vs Emmalina

American parents have registered 778,172 Emmas since 1880, against 624 Emmalinas. Emma is still ahead, with 12,768 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Emma against Emmalina, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Emma Emmalina

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

Emma 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 2010, when Emma had 17,383 and Emmalina had 77.

Side by side

  Emma Emmalina
Total US births 778,172624
Most in one year 22,75677
Babies in 2025 12,76810
Estimated living today 570,000620
Median age today 1611
Peak year 20032010
Best rank 2nd girls2,427th girls
Rank in 2025 3rd9,457th
First recorded 18802001
Girls / boys 776,439 / 1,733624 / 0

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 Emmas alive today are over 16; half the Emmalinas are over 11. That is 5 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: Emma and Emmalina.