Emmylou
Feminine name of German and French origins meaning "hardworking" or "industrious".
Name Census estimates that about 1,169 living Americans carry the first name Emmylou. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emmylou today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emmylou births was 2021 (94 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emmylou. 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 Emmylou with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Emmylou is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 293,203 Americans
Peak year
2021
94 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,578
Tracked since 1924
Census
Emmylou in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 997 people with the first name Emmylou, which placed it at #12,465 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
#12,465
National first-name rank
People counted
997
997 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emmylou
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmylou is White at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.4%) and Hispanic (6.8%). 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 Emmylou 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 Emmylou at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.2% · 720
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.4% · 154
- Hispanic or Latino6.8% · 68
- Two or more races4.0% · 40
- Black or African American0.8% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 7
Popularity
Emmylou: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emmylou from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 558 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emmylou remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emmylou 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 Emmylou during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emmylous live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Emmylou, while Virginia, Kansas, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emmylou
The name Emmylou originated as a combination of the names Emily and Lou, both of which have distinct origins and histories. Emily is derived from the Germanic name Amalrich, which means "prosperous" or "hardworking." It was popularized in England during the 18th century. Lou, on the other hand, is a shortened form of the French name Louise, which comes from the Germanic name Hludwig, meaning "famous warrior."
While the exact origins of the combined name Emmylou are unclear, it likely emerged in the United States during the late 19th or early 20th century. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Emmylou was in the 1927 novel "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway, where a character named Emmylou Brown is mentioned.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Emmylou. One of the most famous is Emmylou Harris, an American singer-songwriter born in 1947. She is renowned for her contributions to country and folk music, and has won numerous awards, including multiple Grammys.
Another Emmylou of note is Emmylou Powell, an American politician who served as the first female Lieutenant Governor of Florida from 1965 to 1967. She was born in 1920 and played a significant role in advancing women's rights and political representation in the state.
In the literary world, Emmylou Harris Bunlari was a South African writer and poet born in 1925. She is known for her works exploring themes of identity, culture, and the complexities of life in apartheid-era South Africa.
Moving to the field of sports, Emmylou Pallais was a French tennis player born in 1898. She was a prominent figure in the early 20th century and won multiple French Championships during her career.
Lastly, Emmylou Dieckhaus was a German artist and sculptor born in 1912. Her works, which often featured abstract forms and shapes, were widely exhibited throughout Europe in the mid-20th century.
People
Emmylou + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emmylou 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
Emmylou: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emmylou?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emmylou 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 293,203 US residents.
Is Emmylou a common name?
We classify Emmylou as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,192 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emmylou most popular?
The single biggest year for Emmylou was 2021, when 94 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emmylou is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emmylou in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 997 people with the name Emmylou, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,465 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 Emmylou 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 Emmylou?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emmylou appears almost entirely female. Of the 996 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Emmylou?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmylou is White at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.4%) and Hispanic (6.8%). 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 Emmylou most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emmylou in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.2% (720 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 Emmylou in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emmylou a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emmylou 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 Emmylou still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emmylou 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 Emmylou 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 common is the name Emmylou?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.