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Emil

From the Latin *aemulus*, a rival or someone striving to match another: rival and eager. Around 29,000 Polish men carry it, and it's a name still given at full pace today, holding its place on the register rather than fading.

Emil Pronunciation

Emil is pronounced E-meel (/ˈɛmil/).

Alive in 2025
29,344
Newborns 2025
398
National rank
#243
Next name day
22 May
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What Emil means

Where Emil comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Emil comes from the Latin Aemilius, the name of an old Roman clan, the gens Aemilia. Scholars link it to the Latin word aemulus, meaning a rival or someone who strives to match another. That is where the short meaning, rival and eager, rywalizujący and gorliwy, has its root.

The name traveled well. Jean-Jacques Rousseau gave it to the pupil in his 1762 book on education, Émile. In 1929 Erich Kästner wrote Emil und die Detektive, and Astrid Lindgren later put the name on her mischievous farm boy in Emil i Lönneberga. A boy called Emil keeps good company.

In Poland the name holds a steady place on the register. Read out during a school roll call, it sits plainly among the Jakubs and Filips. Its imieniny falls most often on 22 May. The feminine variant Emilia grew far more common, and the form Emili also appears, though both go back to the same Roman house that handed down aemulus, the striver.

When Emil celebrates name day

Emil appears 8 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 22 May.

Next name day
22 May
Saturday in 2027
Next one in 254 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.

How many people are named Emil

1 in 728 men in Poland is named Emil. 29,344 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #243 among male names.

People with the name Emil 2019 → 2025
29,344 +1,785 since 2019
2020 27,758 +199
2021 27,960 +202
2022 28,224 +264
2023 28,665 +441
2024 29,033 +368
2025 29,344 +311

Emil's popularity over time

398 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #127 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade.

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398 newborns with the name Emil in 2025
national rank #127 that year

Where Emil is most popular

Emil is most popular in Opole, 64% above the national average (99 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Subcarpathian (+64%) and Lesser Poland (+50%). It is least common in Warmian-Masurian and Łódź, 40% and 38% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Emil as a middle name

Emil is a first name for 29,344 men in Poland and a middle name for another 12,312, a 70/30 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 98th, between Lucjan (13,321) and Alojzy (11,470).

As a first name
29,344
As a middle name
12,312
first name 70% middle name 30%
Middle-name ranking men

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