9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Violet vs Emily

How Violet and Emily 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

Violet

Female · Italian

Meaning: Flower

Emily

Female · German

Meaning: "Industrious, Eager"

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Violet (girls) vs Emily (girls), 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 Violet Emily
Peak year (most US births) 2025 — 7,546 girls 1999 — 26,542 girls
Peak rank #13 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #13 (7,546 births) #34 (5,451 births)
Total US births since 1880 142,559 807,425
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 57,867 75,367

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Emily reached 26,542 US births in 1999 — 18,996 more than Violet'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 Violet births Emily births
1901 Violet 611 537
1973 Emily 0 3,027
2023 Violet 6,364 6,172

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 girls-name list.

Violet — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Wisconsin #14 1,308
2 Minnesota #17 1,285
3 Maine #19 282
4 Iowa #20 701
5 Oregon #21 761

Emily — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 California #10 12,185
2 New Jersey #13 2,319
3 Florida #13 4,899
4 Texas #14 8,237
5 New York #15 4,529

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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 →