Ember
Ember was given to 1,952 girls in 2025, #154 among girls’ names; 23,072 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 22,900 Americans named Ember and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 3 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ember by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ember mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ember is “a unisex given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ember?
#154 among girls’ names, 2025
Ember rose from #366 in 2015 to #154 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.51 to 1.2 per 1,000.
2,222 babies in 2024, the peak
Ember peaked in 2024, when 2,222 babies were given it (2,183 girls, #135 among girls’ names). The 1,988 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 89% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,952 | #154 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 2,183 | #135 | 1.3 |
| 2023 | 1,707 | #169 | 1.1 |
| 2022 | 1,836 | #158 | 1.1 |
| 2021 | 1,775 | #163 | 1.1 |
| 2020 | 1,539 | #187 | 1.0 |
| 2019 | 1,541 | #195 | 0.92 |
| 2018 | 1,475 | #208 | 0.87 |
| 2017 | 1,122 | #289 | 0.65 |
| 2016 | 1,021 | #320 | 0.58 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 902 | #366 | 0.51 |
| 2014 | 741 | #431 | 0.41 |
| 2013 | 523 | #559 | 0.30 |
| 2012 | 508 | #577 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 424 | #669 | 0.24 |
| 2010 | 326 | #824 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 311 | #883 | 0.17 |
| 2008 | 201 | #1,251 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 224 | #1,146 | 0.12 |
| 2006 | 176 | #1,329 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 160 | #1,356 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 143 | #1,436 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 127 | #1,527 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 98 | #1,823 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 90 | #1,920 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 68 | #2,285 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 80 | #1,962 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 83 | #1,848 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 74 | #1,946 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 69 | #2,021 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 55 | #2,367 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 60 | #2,214 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 52 | #2,420 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 48 | #2,578 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 48 | #2,560 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 60 | #2,152 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 60 | #2,077 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 90 | #1,508 | 0.05 |
| 1987 | 41 | #2,502 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 31 | #2,993 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 29 | #3,107 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 49 | #2,057 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 40 | #2,364 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 42 | #2,336 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 46 | #2,208 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 35 | #2,664 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 50 | #2,028 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 48 | #1,995 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 35 | #2,471 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 36 | #2,306 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 30 | #2,575 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 19 | #3,467 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 21 | #3,149 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 14 | #4,148 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 14 | #4,169 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 18 | #3,468 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,507 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 11 | #4,284 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,119 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,422 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 14 | #3,567 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #6,894 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 9 | #4,644 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #5,899 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,331 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #5,923 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,087 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #3,760 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ember a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 23,072 Americans recorded as Ember, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 1,952 girls and 36 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ember: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ember, and how old are they?
22,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 23,072 Americans ever recorded as Ember. The median Ember alive today is 7 years old; half are between 3 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 10,925 people named Ember (10,663 women and girls, 262 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 12,123 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 47 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 336 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 798 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,110 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 18,600 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ember born?
The states with the most babies named Ember are Texas, California and Florida, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 150 | #236 | 0.8× |
| California | 132 | #252 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 98 | #185 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 91 | #115 | 1.0× |
| Missouri | 79 | #55 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 75 | #140 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 74 | #77 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 68 | #150 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 65 | #110 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 61 | #102 | 1.5× |
Where Ember is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ember is most over-represented in Wyoming: since 1946 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ember with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 23,182 babies since 1880, Ember is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,988 of their 2,000 babies (99%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ember
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ember and names like it
- Compare Ember and EmbyrBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sEmber peaked in 2024.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ember since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Ember.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ember alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.