Emmanuela
Hebrew feminine name meaning "God is with us".
Name Census estimates that about 688 living Americans carry the first name Emmanuela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emmanuela today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emmanuela births was 2015 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emmanuela. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Emmanuela with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
688
~ 1 in 498,189 Americans
Peak year
2015
31 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,682
Tracked since 1980
Census
Emmanuela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 991 people with the first name Emmanuela, which placed it at #12,527 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
#12,527
National first-name rank
People counted
991
991 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emmanuela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmanuela is Black at 71.0%. The next largest groups are White (14.8%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Emmanuela 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 Emmanuela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.0% · 704
- White14.8% · 147
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 93
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 31
- Two or more races1.3% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Emmanuela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emmanuela from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 231 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emmanuela 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 Emmanuela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emmanuelas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Emmanuela, while New Jersey, Texas, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emmanuela
Emmanuela is a feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Immanu El, which means "God is with us." The name has its origins in ancient Hebrew culture and can be traced back to biblical times.
The name first appeared in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, where it was used as a prophetic title for the newborn Jesus Christ. It was a symbolic name meant to convey the belief that God had become incarnate in human form.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Emmanuela, a 4th-century Christian martyr who was executed during the Diocletian persecution in Rome. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
In the Middle Ages, the name Emmanuela was relatively uncommon but still used occasionally in Christian communities across Europe. Notable bearers include Emmanuela of Valencia, a 13th-century Spanish mystic and religious writer (c. 1230-1282).
During the Renaissance, the name gained some popularity in Italy and other parts of southern Europe. One notable figure was Emmanuela Gambara (c. 1485-1550), an Italian poet and noblewoman who was a member of the renowned literary circle at the court of Isabella d'Este in Mantua.
In the 17th century, Emmanuela Ouriques (1635-1711) was a influential Sephardic Jewish writer and philosopher who lived in Amsterdam and wrote extensively on Jewish mysticism and ethics.
Another notable bearer of the name was Emmanuela Baronessa d'Elci (1751-1842), an Italian aristocrat and writer who was a prominent figure in the Enlightenment salons of Paris and Rome.
As the name spread throughout the Christian world, other notable figures included Emmanuela Mendez da Costa (1798-1868), a British Jewish author and educator who wrote extensively on Jewish history and culture.
People
Emmanuela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emmanuela 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
Emmanuela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emmanuela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 688 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emmanuela 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 498,189 US residents.
Is Emmanuela a common name?
We classify Emmanuela as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 701 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emmanuela most popular?
The single biggest year for Emmanuela was 2015, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emmanuela is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emmanuela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 991 people with the name Emmanuela, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,527 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 Emmanuela 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 Emmanuela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emmanuela leans strongly female. 979 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 15 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Emmanuela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmanuela is Black at 71.0%. The next largest groups are White (14.8%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Emmanuela most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Emmanuela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (704 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 Emmanuela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emmanuela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emmanuela 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 Emmanuela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emmanuela 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 Emmanuela 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 have the name Emmanuela?
Want to know how many Americans are named Emmanuela? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.