Emily
Barely 3,000 women in Poland carry it, so most people here have never met one, yet the name is climbing: more girls got it last year than in seasons past. Latin at root, it means "rival", and it's only ever given to daughters.
Emily Pronunciation
Emily is pronounced e-MEE-lih (/ɛˈmilɨ/).
What Emily means
Where Emily comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Emily descends from the Latin family name Aemilius, a clan name from the Roman world. Behind it sits the adjective aemulus, meaning rival, or one who strives to match another. That is where the streak of ambition comes from. The short meaning given to Emily, rival, points back to this old idea of striving rather than to any tale of quarrel.
English readers met the name most memorably through its writers. Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights in 1847. Emily Dickinson filled a room in Massachusetts with poems that almost no one read while she lived. Both women carried a name built on striving, and both pushed hard at the limits their circumstances set.
On a Polish class register today, Emily sits among names borrowed from English. A teacher reads it out. The spelling stays foreign, the ending clipped and short.
The name keeps no Polish diminutive of its own, no softened form to slip into. What it keeps is the Latin root and its blunt gloss: rival, ambitious.
How many people are named Emily
1 in 7401 women in Poland is named Emily. 3,046 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #585 among female names.
Emily's popularity over time
71 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #290 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where parents choose Emily
Emily is most popular in Opole, 109% above the national average (15 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+60%) and Lubusz (+55%). It is least common in Podlaskie and Łódź, 80% and 75% below average respectively.
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Opole
+109%1 in 3,073 babies
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Lower Silesian
+60%1 in 4,029 babies
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Lubusz
+55%1 in 4,138 babies
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Podlaskie
−80%1 in 32,893 babies
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Łódź
−75%1 in 25,344 babies
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Holy Cross
−65%1 in 18,478 babies
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Opole+109% 15 born1 in 3,073 babies+109%
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Lower Silesian+60% 39 born1 in 4,029 babies+60%
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Lubusz+55% 12 born1 in 4,138 babies+55%
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West Pomeranian+37% 18 born1 in 4,690 babies+37%
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Subcarpathian+33% 25 born1 in 4,823 babies+33%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+12% 19 born1 in 5,757 babies+12%
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Lesser Poland+11% 39 born1 in 5,818 babies+11%
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Masovian+7% 59 born1 in 6,004 babies+7%
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Silesian+7% 38 born1 in 5,989 babies+7%
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Pomeranian±0% 23 born1 in 6,405 babies±0%
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Lublin−31% 11 born1 in 9,334 babies−31%
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Greater Poland−31% 23 born1 in 9,358 babies−31%
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Warmian-Masurian−55% 5 born1 in 14,359 babies−55%
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Holy Cross−65% 3 born1 in 18,478 babies−65%
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Łódź−75% 5 born1 in 25,344 babies−75%
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Podlaskie−80% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−80%
Emily as a middle name
Emily is a first name for 3,046 women in Poland and a middle name for another 574, an 84/16 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 301st, between Veronica (584) and Margaret (565).
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#299 Sarah585
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#300 Veronica584
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#301 Emily574
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#302 Margaret565
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#303 Mirella561