Emma (given name)
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![]() Emma, Lady Hamilton is a famous Emma | |
Gender | Female |
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Name day | April 19 |
Origin | |
Word/name | Ancient Germanic, Ancient Scandinavian, Old Norse, Italian, and Modern Scandinavian |
Meaning | whole, universal |
Other names | |
Related names | Emily, Emmy, Em, Irma, Emilie |
Emma is a feminine given name. It is derived from the Germanic word ermen meaning whole or universal, and was originally a short form of Germanic names that began with ermen. Emma is also used as a diminutive of Emmeline, Amelia or any other name beginning with "em". It was introduced to England by Emma of Normandy, who was the wife both of King Ethelred II (and by him the mother of Edward the Confessor) and later of King Canute. It was also borne by an 11th-century Austrian saint, who is sometimes called Hemma.
After the Norman conquest this name became common in England. It was revived in the 18th century, perhaps in part due to Matthew Prior's poem Henry and Emma (1709). It was also used by Jane Austen for the central character, the matchmaker Emma Woodhouse, in her novel Emma (1815).
It has been among the top names given to baby girls in the United States, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Ireland, France, Sweden, Belgium, Russia, Canada, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Hungary, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain in the past 10 years. It began gaining popularity in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. By 1974 it was the fourth most popular name for girls in England and Wales. It was still in the top 10 as late as 1995, but had fallen out of the top 20 by 2005 and in 2009 it ranked at 41st.[1]
It became popular in the United States later in the 20th century, reaching the top 100 names for girls in the late 1990s. It has been among the top 5 names given to girls since 2002, and was the most popular name for girls in 2008, 2014, and 2015.[2]
Notable people
- Emma Albani (1847–1930), Canadian operatic soprano
- Emma B. Alrich (1845–1925), American journalist, author, educator
- Emma Anzai, bassist of Australian band Sick Puppies
- Emma Whitcomb Babcock (1849-1926), American litterateur, author
- Emma Bell (born 1986), American actress
- Emma Bengtsson, Swedish chef
- Emma Bonino (born 1948), Italian politician and human rights activist
- Emma Scarr Booth (1835–1927), British-born American novelist, poet
- Emma Eliza Bower (1852–1937), American physician, club-woman, and newspaper owner, publisher, editor
- Emma Southwick Brinton (1834-1922), American Civil War nurse, traveller, correspondent
- Emma Elizabeth Brown (1847–?), American writer, artist
- Emma Bull (born 1954), American science fiction and fantasy author
- Emma Bunton (born 1976), English singer, the Spice Girls
- Emma Caulfield (born 1973), American actress
- Emma Churchill (1862–1957), founder of the Salvation Army in Newfoundland
- Emma Shaw Colcleugh (1846-1940), American journalist, lecturer, traveler, collector
- Emma Amelia Cranmer (1858–1937), American reformer, suffragist, writer
- Emma Darwin (1808–1896), wife of Charles Darwin
- Emma Didlake (1905–2015), oldest U.S. veteran
- Emma Dumont (born 1994), American actress and model
- Emma Bedelia Dunham (1826–1910), American poet, teacher
- Emma Catherine Embury (1806-1863), American author, poet
- Emma Pike Ewing (1838-1917), American educator, author
- Emma Ferguson (born 1975), English actress, Mile High
- Emma Sheridan Fry (1864–1936), American actress, playwright, teacher
- Emma Fürstenhoff (born 1802), Swedish florist
- Emma Sophia Galton (1811–1904), British finance guide author
- Emma Gatewood (1887–1973), American hiker
- Emma George (born 1974), Australian pole vaulter
- Emma Goldman (1869–1940), Lithuania-born anarchist, writer and orator
- Emma González (born 1999), American activist and advocate for gun control
- Emma Grant (footballer) (born 1989), Australian footballer
- Emma Green (nurse), 19th century southern belle
- Emma Green (athlete) (born 1984), Swedish athlete
- Emma Jane Greenland (1760-1843), English painter, writer, singer
- Emma, Lady Hamilton (born 1761), English artist's model and performer
- Emma Heming (born 1978), English actress
- Emma Churchman Hewitt (1850–1921), American writer, journalist
- Emma Hippolyte, Saint Lucian politician
- Emma Hope (born 1962), British shoe designer
- Emma Hwang (born 1970), Taiwanese-American scientist and aquanaut
- Emma Jung (1882–1955), Swiss psychologist and writer
- Emma Lahana (born 1984), New Zealand actress and singer
- Emma Laine (born 1986), Finnish tennis player
- Emma Laura (born 1971), Mexican actress
- Emma Lazarus (1849–1887), American poet
- Queen Emma of Hawaii (1836–1885), queen to King Kamehameha IV from 1856 to his death in 1863
- Emma Malabuyo (born 2002), American gymnast
- Emma Meesseman (born 1993), Belgian basketball player
- Emma of Mělník (b. before 950, d. 1005/1006), wife of Boleslav II of Bohemia and Bohemian duchess
- Emma Miyazawa (born 1988), Japanese actress
- Emma Neale (born 1969), New Zealand novelist and poet
- Emma of Normandy (c. 985–1052), twice Queen consort of the Kingdom of England
- Queen Emma of the Netherlands (1858–1934), Queen of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- Emma Rigby (born 1989), English actress, known for her role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks
- Emma Roberts (born 1991), American actress and singer
- Emma Rochlin (born 1978), Scottish field hockey player
- Emma Samms (born 1960), English actress
- Emma Sandys (1843-1877), English painter
- Emma Shah (born 1981), Kuwaiti singer
- Emma Shapplin (born 1974), French soprano
- Emma Augusta Sharkey (1858-1802), American writer, journalist, dime novelist, story-teller
- Emma L. Shaw (1840–1924), American magazine editor
- Emma Sinclair, British businesswoman
- Emma Slater (born 1988), British ballroom dancer
- Emma Snowsill (born 1981), Australian triathlete
- Emily 'Emma' Stone (born 1988), American actress
- Emma Tennant (1937–2017), British novelist
- Emma Thompson (born 1959), British actress, comedian and screenwriter
- Emma Thynn, Viscountess Weymouth (born 1986), English socialite
- Emma Watkins (born 1989), Australian children's entertainer, The Wiggles
- Emma Watson (born 1990), British actress, Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films
- Emma Willard (1787-1870), women's education rights activist
- Emma Willis (born 1976), British TV presenter and former model, presenter of Big Brother
- Emma Zimmer (1888-1948), overseer at the Ravensbrück concentration camp executed for war crimes
Fictional characters
- Emma in the Teletoon Canadian animated sitcom Stoked
- Emma Bloom, peculiar girl in Ransom Rigg's series Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
- Emma Bovary, the heroine of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary
- Emma Coolidge in Heroes
- Emma Frost in Marvel Comics
- Emma Geller-Green, daughter of Rachel Green and Ross Geller on Friends
- Emma Gilbert in H20, Just add Water
- Emma,[3] the Amazon daughter of Dean Winchester from the popular television show Supernatural
- Emma Kliesen, a minor character in the Tekken series
- Emma Karn, a main character in the NBC series "Aquarius (U.S. TV series)"
- Emma Nelson, the staple character in Degrassi: The Next Generation
- Emma Peel, fictional television spy played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure series The Avengers
- Emma Pillsbury in Glee
- Emma Ross on the Disney Channel series Jessie and Bunk'd
- Emma Sheen, Gundam pilot from the AEUG group in the anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
- Emma Swan, protagonist of the television series Once Upon a Time
- Emma Washburne, daughter of Zoe and Wash in the science fiction franchise Firefly
- Emma Woodhouse, the title character of Jane Austen's Emma
- Emma Zunz in the eponymous short story by Jorge Luis Borges
- Emma main character in Emma: A Victorian Romance
- Emma Wheeler on the ABC Family series Baby Daddy
- Emma Carstairs, a character and protagonist in Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters Chronicles and heroine in The Dark Artifices
- Emma Goodall in Power Rangers Megaforce
See also
References
- ^ "Emma – Meaning And Origin Of The Name Emma". BabyNames.co.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ "Popular Baby Names". ssa.gov. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
- ^ "Emma – Super-wiki".
- Given names
- French feminine given names
- German feminine given names
- Czech feminine given names
- English feminine given names
- Slovak feminine given names
- Slovene feminine given names
- Italian feminine given names
- Scandinavian feminine given names
- Scottish feminine given names
- Welsh feminine given names
- Danish feminine given names
- Norwegian feminine given names
- Icelandic feminine given names
- Swedish feminine given names
- Finnish feminine given names
- Dutch feminine given names