← Back to The Age of Revolutions
Boy · Latin, through French and German
Emil
Say it: AY-meel
Meaning
From the Roman family name Aemilius, possibly from aemulus 'rival', though this is not certain.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Spread after Rousseau's Émile; now fashionable again in German-speaking and Nordic countries.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 32,385 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1881, about 1 in 695 boys
- 151 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
| French | Émile |
|---|---|
| Italian | Emilio |
| Spanish | Emilio |
| English | Emile |
| Polish | Emil |
Famous bearers
- Emil Nolde, painter
- Emil Zátopek, Czech runner
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- 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.