Emil
- Pronunciation
- [Eh-mil]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Derived From Roman Clan Name Which May Mean Industrious.
- Origin
- German
About the Name Emil
Emil is a Germanic name derived from the Roman clan name Aemilius, whose precise original meaning is uncertain — it may relate to the Latin aemulus (rival, striving to equal) or carry the sense of industrious through folk interpretation. The name passed from its Roman origins through Latin into German, Scandinavian, and Slavic languages, where it became Emil — a clean, two-syllable form that retained the name's classical heritage while shedding the elaborate Roman clan suffix. In German and Scandinavian cultures Emil has been a standard masculine name for centuries, giving it a solidity that many strictly classical Latin names lack in everyday English-speaking contexts.
Emil Zatopek was a Czechoslovak long-distance runner, born on September 19, 1922, in Koprivnice, Moravia, and died on November 22, 2000, in Prague. The son of a carpenter and the seventh of eight children, he became one of the most celebrated middle- and long-distance runners in the history of athletics — a bearer whose achievements gave the name an association with exceptional endurance and competitive drive.
In US Social Security records, Emil appears in the male top-1000 from 1881 through 1887, reaching its peak rank of #90 in 1881. Its total of 762 top-1000 births across those seven years reflects a name that sat at the outer edge of American mainstream popularity during the peak of German and Central European immigration to the United States, when Germanic names were common in immigrant communities but less so in the general Anglo-American naming pool. Recorded variants include Aimil, Emile, Emilio, and Emlyn — spanning the Scottish Gaelic Aimil to the Spanish and Italian Emilio, which has itself become a popular given name in its own right.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Emil
US Popularity History (1881–1887)
Annual US births named Emil by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1884 with 175 boys named Emil (boy rank #91 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1887, ranked #100 for boys (146 US births). That's 9 places below its 1884 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.
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Where in the US Is Emil Most Popular?
Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Emil the strongest states are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #546 | 68 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | #691 | 50 |
| 3 | New York | #704 | 190 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #726 | 52 |
| 5 | Washington | #842 | 47 |
| 6 | California | #950 | 118 |
| 7 | Illinois | #994 | 41 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #994 | 41 |
| 2 | California | #950 | 118 |
| 3 | Washington | #842 | 47 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #726 | 52 |
| 5 | New York | #704 | 190 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | #691 | 50 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #546 | 68 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Emil in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Emil
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Emil.
- Emil Zatopek was an accomplished, world record breaking long distance runner.
Looking for names like Emil?
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.
Compare Emil to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Emil against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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