Emma: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Emma has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 765,264 births with this name, split between 763,546 girls and 1,718 boys. Because the larger side of that split is girls, this page follows the girls ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Emma was 2003, when 22,719 girls received the name and it reached rank 2 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 2003, Emma accounted for 1.24% of all recorded girls births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Emma by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Emma becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Emma can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

In the 1880s, Emma was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 3 and recording 25,404 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 1890s, Emma was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 5 and recording 28,652 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. During the 1900s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 13 and 24,176 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1910s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 34 and 41,819 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1920s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 46 and 46,538 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1930s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 73 and 30,022 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 94 and 22,787 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1950s, Emma recorded 14,614 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 154, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

In the 1960s, Emma recorded 6,991 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 296, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1970s, Emma recorded 4,667 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 408, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1980s, Emma recorded 10,386 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 149, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. During the 1990s, Emma stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 17 and 58,250 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 2000s, Emma was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 1 and recording 181,393 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 2010s, Emma was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 1 and recording 195,028 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. In the 2020s, Emma was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 2 and recording 72,819 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among girls, and the share of all girls births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 17,364 to 13,485, a change of -22.3 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Emma stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Emma recorded 12,560 births for girls, and in 2010 it recorded 17,364. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Emma also appears on the boys side of the file, with 1,718 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 763,546 births recorded for girls, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the girls table only. Counting both sides together, Emma totals 765,264 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 72 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among girls and a rank earned among boys describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Emma with the full rankings for its peak year (2003) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Emma were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 13,485 girls named Emma, ranked 2 among girls that year.

When was Emma most popular?
Emma peaked in 2003 with 22,719 births for girls, reaching rank 2 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Emma appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 765,264 births named Emma from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/