Emma

Where Emma comes from

Brought to England by the Normans; short form of compound given names beginning with a Frankish prototheme Ermin- or Irmin- "entire", from Proto-Germanic *ermunaz.
— Wiktionary's entry for Emma
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1869
    Emma Goldman born
    Russian-born American anarchist
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #3 among girls — 2,003 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1959
    Emma Thompson born
    English actress and screenwriter
  4. 2014
    Peak, #1
    20,970 babies named Emma — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2014
    The comeback
    Back to #1 after sinking to #463 in 1976.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Emma Goldman · Russian-born American anarchist, 1869–1940
  • Emma Thompson · English actress and screenwriter, born 1959
  • Emma Roberts · American actress, singer, model and producer, born 1991
  • Emma Raducanu · British tennis player, born 2002
  • Emma Bunton · British singer, born 1976

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.