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Emil vs Lucas

How Emil and Lucas compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Emil

Male · German

Meaning: Derived From Roman Clan Name Which May Mean Industrious.

Lucas

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Emil (boys) vs Lucas (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Emil Lucas
Peak year (most US births) 1884 — 175 boys 2017 — 13,029 boys
Peak rank #91 #11
Most recent rank (1887) #100 (146 births) #10 (10,219 births)
Total US births since 1880 762 290,284
Last 10 years (1878–1887) 762 116,799

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Lucas reached 13,029 US births in 2017 — 12,854 more than Emil's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Emil births Lucas births
1980 Lucas 0 3,081

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Emil — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Massachusetts #546 68
2 Pennsylvania #691 50
3 New York #704 190
4 New Jersey #726 52
5 Washington #842 47

Lucas — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Florida #3 8,933
2 New York #4 8,253
3 New Jersey #4 3,983
4 Maryland #6 2,113
5 Connecticut #6 1,403

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →