Humanverse

Emil vs Emilce

American parents have registered 33,230 Emils since 1880, against 64 Emilces. Emil is still ahead, with 155 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Emil against Emilce, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Emil Emilce

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Emil has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1991, when Emil had 91 and Emilce had 30.

Side by side

  Emil Emilce
Total US births 33,23064
Most in one year 1,01230
Babies in 2025 155under 5
Estimated living today 9,60060
Median age today 4533
Peak year 19171991
Best rank 137th boys3,540th girls
Rank in 2025 1,267thunranked
First recorded 18801991
Girls / boys 134 / 33,09664 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Emils alive today are over 45; half the Emilces are over 33. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Emil and Emilce.