Emersen
A masculine name derived from Old English meaning "brave and determined".
Name Census estimates that about 1,117 living Americans carry the first name Emersen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Emersen today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emersen births was 2012 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emersen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Emersen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 306,853 Americans
Peak year
2012
68 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,393
Tracked since 1998
Census
Emersen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 913 people with the first name Emersen, which placed it at #13,282 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,282
National first-name rank
People counted
913
913 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emersen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emersen is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Emersen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Emersen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 763
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 67
- Two or more races6.0% · 55
- Black or African American2.0% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Emersen
Emersen leans heavily female at 88.8% of total registrations, but 126 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Emersen as a male name
- Ranked #8,495 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (14 births)
Emersen as a female name
- Ranked #4,393 in 2024
- 32 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (61 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emersen leans strongly female. 809 people counted with this name were female (88.4%), compared with 106 male bearers (11.6%).
Popularity
Emersen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emersen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 549 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emersen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emersen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Emersen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emersens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, California, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Emersen, while Ohio, Nebraska, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emersen
The name Emersen is of English origin, derived from the Old English surname "Emerson," which means "son of Emery." The name Emery itself is derived from the Germanic elements "eim" meaning "labor" or "work," and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler," suggesting a meaning of "industrious ruler" or "powerful worker."
The name Emersen can be traced back to the Middle Ages in England, where it was used as a surname for families who were involved in occupations requiring physical labor or skilled craftsmanship. The earliest recorded use of the name Emersen as a given name is believed to be in the late 19th century, possibly inspired by the famous American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).
One of the earliest notable individuals with the first name Emersen was Emersen Hough (1857-1923), an American author and naturalist best known for his novels set in the American West. Another early example is Emersen Bly (1878-1919), an American pilot and aviation pioneer who was the first person to fly from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba.
In the 20th century, Emersen Crooks (1903-1988) was an American businessman and politician who served as the Mayor of Pasadena, California, from 1937 to 1945. Another notable figure was Emersen Smith (1911-2004), an American football player and coach who played for the Chicago Bears in the 1930s and later served as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
More recently, Emersen Fittipaldi (born 1946) is a Brazilian former racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in 1972 and 1974. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in the history of Brazilian motorsports.
While the name Emersen is not as common as some other names, it has a rich history and has been borne by various notable individuals throughout the centuries, particularly in the fields of literature, aviation, politics, sports, and business.
People
Emersen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emersen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Emersen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emersen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,117 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emersen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 306,853 US residents.
Is Emersen a common name?
We classify Emersen as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,128 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emersen most popular?
The single biggest year for Emersen was 2012, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emersen is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emersen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 913 people with the name Emersen, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,282 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Emersen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Emersen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emersen leans strongly female. 809 people counted with this name were female (88.4%), compared with 106 male bearers (11.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Emersen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emersen is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Emersen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emersen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (763 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Emersen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emersen a female name?
Yes, 88.8% of people registered as Emersen in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Emersen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emersen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Emersen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Emersen?
Find out how many Americans are named Emersen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.