Emerald: Meaning of Baby Name Emerald

About the Name Emerald

Emerald takes its name directly from the prized green gemstone, the brilliant jewel long associated with renewal, harmony, and lush vitality. The word travels through the Spanish esmeralda and older Mediterranean roots, carrying centuries of fascination with the stone's deep, luminous color. As a name, it glows with that same rich, verdant beauty, evoking spring growth and timeless elegance at once. It is a name that pairs natural beauty with a hint of treasured rarity.

Its appeal lies in that vivid imagery and its place among the cherished family of gemstone names like Ruby, Pearl, and Opal. Emerald feels both classic and a touch romantic, conjuring nature and luxury in a single word, with a graceful three-syllable rhythm that lends it a jewel-like sparkle. It is bolder than many floral or color names yet still soft and unmistakably feminine, a striking choice with real depth of association. It is a choice with real depth and shimmer, both grounded in nature and touched by luxury.

Emerald first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for girls in 2000 and has risen in recent years to its peak in 2024 at rank #707 — its strongest year on record, with 396 girls given the name. With roughly 2,917 births across its tracked span, it is clearly an ascending choice. Recorded variants include Em and Esmeralda.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Emerald

957

Spanish baby names in our dictionary

559

Spanish female names

179

7-letter E-names in our dictionary

486

E-female names total

2000–2025

years of US SSA records (11 total)

3,284

total US births named Emerald (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Emerald climbed 212 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#953 in 2020 → #741 in 2025).

Annual US births named Emerald by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 396 girls named Emerald (girl rank #707 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #741 for girls (367 US births). That's 34 places below its 2024 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Emerald Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Emerald the strongest states are Mississippi, Utah, Kentucky.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Mississippi	#461	19
2	Utah	#521	31
3	Kentucky	#589	21
4	South Carolina	#596	38
5	Oregon	#603	29
6	Alabama	#617	47
7	Oklahoma	#626	32
8	North Carolina	#644	126
9	Maryland	#647	33
10	Wisconsin	#659	39

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Pennsylvania	#1,081	25
2	Illinois	#974	27
3	Michigan	#894	44
4	New York	#882	72
5	Florida	#861	92
6	California	#847	265
7	Arizona	#837	53
8	Ohio	#831	56
9	Massachusetts	#829	23
10	Minnesota	#796	18

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Emerald in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Esmeralda	The Prized Green Emerald Gemstone.	Female	Spanish

Looking for names like Emerald?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

See all names like Emerald →

Compare Emerald to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Emerald against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Emerald vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Emerald vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Emerald vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Emerald vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Emerald vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Emerald vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Emerald vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Emerald vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

Compare to a different name →