Emmer
An English masculine name derived from Germanic roots meaning "industrious warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 243 living Americans carry the first name Emmer. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Emmer today is around 83 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emmer births was 1926 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emmer. 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
- • The typical person named Emmer is about 83 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Emmers were born before 1953.
People living today
243
~ 1 in 1,410,512 Americans
Peak year
1926
74 babies that year
Average age
83
years old
1929 SSA rank
#3,681
Tracked since 1880
Census
Emmer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 278 people with the first name Emmer, which placed it at #31,017 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
#31,017
National first-name rank
People counted
278
278 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
50.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emmer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmer is Black at 50.4%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Hispanic (12.9%). 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 Emmer 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 Emmer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American50.4% · 140
- White28.8% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino12.9% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 6
- Two or more races1.8% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Emmer
Out of the 2,166 babies given the name Emmer since 1880, 99.5% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Emmer as a male name
- Ranked #3,681 in 1929
- 6 male births in 1929
- Peak: 1929 (6 births)
Emmer as a female name
- Ranked #6,898 in 1963
- 5 female births in 1963
- Peak: 1926 (69 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Emmer on both sides of the split. Of the 279 people counted with this name, 59 were male (21.1%) and 220 were female (78.9%).
Popularity
Emmer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emmer from the 1880s through to the 1960s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 558 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emmer 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 Emmer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emmers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Emmer, while Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 84 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emmer
The name Emmer is an ancient Germanic name that dates back to the early medieval period. It is derived from the Old High German word "emurie," which means "industrious" or "diligent." The name was particularly popular in regions of modern-day Germany and Austria.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emmer can be found in the "Codex Traditionum Ecclesiae Rauerinae," a 9th-century manuscript from the Benedictine abbey in Regensburg, Bavaria. The document mentions an individual named "Emmerus," who was a landowner and a benefactor of the abbey.
Another notable historical figure bearing the name Emmer was Emmerammus (also known as Emmeram or Emmeran), a Frankish bishop and missionary who lived in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and is celebrated as the patron saint of Regensburg.
In the 12th century, a German cleric and chronicler named Emmerus (or Emmero) wrote the "Chronicle of the Bishops of Bamberg," an important historical account of the bishops of the Bamberg diocese in modern-day Bavaria.
During the Renaissance period, there was a German humanist scholar and philosopher named Emmius (or Emmer) who lived from 1545 to 1615. He is best known for his work on the history of the Frisian people and their language.
Another notable individual with the name Emmer was Emmerich Kalman, a Hungarian composer and conductor who lived from 1882 to 1953. He is famous for his operettas and is considered one of the most significant composers of light music in the early 20th century.
While the name Emmer has Germanic roots, it has also been used in other cultures and languages over time, though its origins can be traced back to the ancient Germanic tribes that inhabited parts of Europe during the medieval period.
People
Emmer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emmer 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
Emmer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emmer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 243 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emmer 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 1,410,512 US residents.
Is Emmer a common name?
We classify Emmer as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,166 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emmer most popular?
The single biggest year for Emmer was 1926, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emmer is about 83 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emmer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 278 people with the name Emmer, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,017 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 Emmer 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 Emmer?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Emmer on both sides of the split. Of the 279 people counted with this name, 59 were male (21.1%) and 220 were female (78.9%). 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 Emmer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmer is Black at 50.4%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Hispanic (12.9%). 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 Emmer most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Emmer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.4% (140 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 Emmer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emmer a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Emmer 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 Emmer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emmer 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 Emmer 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 named Emmer?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.