Emerson

Popularity Trends

The name Emerson is the #954 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 60,677 recorded births since 1880. This represents the 87.7% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 87.7% of all names). For boys, it ranks #658 (85.7% percentile) for all time with 30,861 births since 1880. For girls, it ranks #818 (85.7% percentile) for all time with 29,816 births since 1993.

Emerson has appeared in U.S. birth records since the beginning of our dataset in 1880 (since 1880 for boys and since 1993 for girls).

The name Emerson is truly gender-neutral, with nearly equal distribution between boys and girls. In 2023, 58.4% of babies named Emerson were girls. Interestingly, until around 2003, the name was more popular for boys (92.6% boys from 1880 to 2002), but since then it has been more commonly used for girls (60.6% girls from 2003 to 2023).

For boys, Emerson reached its peak popularity in 2022, achieving the 71.9% percentile (ranked #260) with 676 births per million. The name was most common in 2019, with 698 births per million (ranked 71.5% percentile). Since reaching a low point around 1983, the popularity of this name for boys has been increasing. Currently, Emerson is at or near its peak popularity for boys, ranked #260 (71.5% percentile) with 687 births per million.

For girls, Emerson reached its peak popularity in 2018, achieving the 85.3% percentile (ranked #142) with 1,047 births per million. The name was most common in 2017, with 1,047 births per million (ranked 84.6% percentile). Since reaching a high point in 2020, the popularity of this name for girls has been declining. Currently, Emerson is at or near its peak popularity for girls, ranked #156 (83.6% percentile) with 1,008 births per million.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Emerson".

1880 2023 18802023

Key Statistics

Total Births

29,816

Peak Births

1,978

Peak Year

2018

First Recorded

1993

Peak Percentile

85.3%

Current Percentile

83.6%

Peak Rank

#142

Current Rank

#156

Female statistics

Total Births

30,861

Peak Births

1,342

Peak Year

2022

First Recorded

1880

Peak Percentile

71.9%

Current Percentile

71.5%

Peak Rank

#260

Current Rank

#260

Male statistics

Names That Sound Similar

These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Emerson.

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Emerson", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Emerson.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Emerson's popularity from 1880 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Emerson at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Emerson range from Finn at 98.0% correlation to Rayleigh at 97.6% correlation, with an average correlation level of 97.8%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Ellie with 94.3K births (99% girls) and the least popular is Adalie with 2.2K births (100% girls).

Emerson's share of births peaked at 1,714.5 births per million in 2017 (1,047 for girls in 2018 and 698.3 for boys in 2022). It reached its lowest point of 31.2 births per million (2% of peak) in 1969. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Emerson had 1,695.5 births per million, 99% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Finn

31.8k

98.04% (very strong)

Ellie

94.3k

97.89% (very strong)

Finnegan

11.9k

97.88% (very strong)

Camilla

28.5k

97.85% (very strong)

Joziah

4,914

97.79% (very strong)

Imogen

2,751

97.75% (very strong)

Prisha

2,660

97.73% (very strong)

Lachlan

5,516

97.70% (very strong)

Adalie

2,218

97.70% (very strong)

Norah

31.4k

97.68% (very strong)

Auden

2,574

97.62% (very strong)

Rayleigh

2,760

97.59% (very strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Emerson

Our model found one way to pronounce the name Emerson. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 100.0% confident that Emerson is pronounced as EH-mer-suhn, which has 3 syllables.

EH-mer-suhn

100.0%

EH-mer-suhn (3 syllables)

Verified

100.0% confidence

EH1 M ER0 S AH0 N

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Emerson? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Emerson. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Emerson, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like EH1 M ER0 S AH0 N) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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