Emil

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Emile in FR France, BR Brazil, NL Netherlands and 3 more and Ემილ in GE Georgia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Emil is also recorded as 9 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Russian given name330K records spelled Emil130 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Poland, Czechia, Bulgaria

  Languages: Russian, Polish, Czech

  Also written Эмиль, Емил, Еміль, Эмил, Emil'

• Finnish given name147K records spelled Emil6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, United States, Estonia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Emil', Émil

• Spanish given name112K records spelled Emil28 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, France, Spain

  Languages: Spanish, French, Romanian

  Also written Émil, Emil', Emíl, Emilio Jaime, Emĩl

• Hungarian given name32K records spelled Emil3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, Slovenia, United States, Switzerland

  Also written Emil', Émil

• a separate given name11K records spelled Emil5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Sweden, Switzerland

  Also written Emīl, Émil, Èmil, Ėmil

• Indonesian given name9.2K records spelled Emil3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Emil'

• a separate given name3.1K records spelled Emil8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Sweden, United States, Kyrgyzstan

  Also written Émil, Émïl, Émìl, Ëmîl, E̶m̶i̶l̶

• Swahili given name3.1K records spelled Emil2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania

  Also written Emil'

• Korean given name606 records spelled Emil7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, South Korea, Sweden, Italy

  Also written Emile, 에밀, Émil, Émile, Emilė

67 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Emil is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• German form of French Emile (see French supplement). Emma @ See main dictionary.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In German, im 18. Jh. aus dem Französischen entlehnter, im 19. Jh. überaus beliebter männl. Vom., der auf lat. Aemilius, einen altrömischen Geschlechtemamen, zurück­ geht. Zum Aufkommen des Vornamens in

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• German and Scandinavian: from the Latin name Aemilius (see EMILY ). Cognates: French: Émile. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese: Emilio .

  as a word

• In Romanian, a male given name from Latin, equivalent to English Emil — famously held by

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Serbo-Croatian, »objekt uz učiniti bogu«

  as a word·Skok, Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (1971-74)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Emil Kocherb. 1841CHsurgeon, laureate of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Medicine (1841-1917)
• Hermann Emil Fischerb. 1852DEGerman chemist (1852–1919)
• Emil Adolf von Behringb. 1854DEGerman physiologist who received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901 for his discovery of a diphtheria antitoxin
• Max Weberb. 1864DEnot in their usual nameGerman sociologist, philosopher, and political economist (1864–1920)
• Emil Noldeb. 1867DEGerman artist (1867–1956)
• Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheimb. 1867FIFinnish military leader and statesman (1867–1951)
• Otto Hahnb. 1879DEnot in their usual nameGerman chemist and physicist (1879-1968)
• Emil Janningsb. 1884ATGerman actor (1884-1950)
• Martin Niemöllerb. 1892DEnot in their usual nameGerman theologian (1892–1984)
• Ludwig Göranssonb. 1984SEnot in their usual nameSwedish musician and composer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,114 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Emil?

We estimate roughly 401 thousand people bear Emil (counting its spellings and scripts) across 15 countries in our records.

In which country does Emil have the most bearers?

We estimate about 168 thousand people bear Emil in France, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled emile.

Where is Emil most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Emil is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 177 people — even though France holds more of our records for it.

How common is Emil compared with other names?

In France, Emil is the 171st most common given name of 711,207 given names recorded there.

Is Emil a male or female name?

Emil is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Emil mean?

Recorded meaning: from Emil < Latin Aemilius, a Roman family name