← Back to The High and Late Middle Ages
Girl · Latin
Aemilia
Say it: eh-MIL-ee-uh
Meaning
Feminine of Aemilius, a Roman family name of uncertain origin; ancient writers linked it to aemulus 'rival'. It is unrelated to Amelia, which is Germanic.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Revived in the Renaissance; English Emily became very common from the 18th century, and Emilia is popular across modern Europe.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 150 babies given this name since 2003
- At its height in 2019, about 1 in 87,900 girls
- 9 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
LatinItalianSpanishEnglishPolishFinnishGermanSwedishAmerican
The family of the name
| Italian | Emilia |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Emilia |
| English | Emily |
| French | Émilie |
| German | Emilia |
| Polish | Emilia |
| Finnish | Emilia |
Famous bearers
- Aemilia Tertia, wife of Scipio Africanus
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
- Parish baptism registers
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.