Every name page on How Many of Mee leads with one number: how many people with that name are alive in the United States today. No government agency publishes that count, so the site estimates it from two sets of Social Security records. This page explains how, step by step, and where the estimate can be off.
1. Births by name, year and sex
The Social Security Administration publishes how many babies born in the US were given each first name, for every year since 1880, separately for boys and girls. The records cover people with a Social Security number, and to protect privacy they list a name only when at least 5 babies of the same sex received it that year. The current release covers births through 2024 and was tabulated from Social Security records as of March 2, 2025.
Adding up every year, those records hold 765,264 girls and boys named Emma between 1880 and 2024. That is a count of births, and many of the earliest Emmas have died.
2. The share of each birth year still alive
The Social Security actuaries publish life tables for every birth year: out of 100,000 people born in a given year, how many are still alive at each age. The site uses the tables from the 2024 Trustees Report (intermediate assumptions), separately for men and women.
For each birth year, the site takes the share of that year’s babies still alive in 2024. For example, about 98% of girls born in 1990 are still living, about 86% of girls born in 1960, and fewer than 1% of girls born in 1920. The tables stop at age 119, so people who would be 120 or older today count as no longer alive.
3. Births times survival, added up
Each year’s births for a name and sex are multiplied by that year’s share still alive, and the results are added together. For girls named Emma:
- 2024: 13,485 girls, all counted as alive
- 2003 (the name’s peak year): 22,719 girls, 98.97% alive, about 22,486
- 1990: 2,420 girls, 97.72% alive, about 2,365
- 1960: 978 girls, 85.76% alive, about 839
- 1920: 5,238 girls, 0.36% alive, about 19
Doing this for every year from 1880 to 2024, for girls and boys, gives about 559,525 people named Emma alive today, out of the 765,264 births.
4. The other figures on a name page
- 1 in N: the US population on July 1, 2024 (340,110,988, the Census Bureau’s estimate) divided by the name’s estimate. For Emma, 340,110,988 divided by 559,525 is about 1 in 607.
- Population percentage: the same estimate as a share of the population.
- Rank: names ordered by their estimate of people alive.
- Rarity: Very Common above 1,000,000 people, Common above 500,000, Uncommon above 100,000, Rare above 10,000, and Very Rare below that.
- Gender split and ages: the people alive today, by sex and by age group (under 30, 30 to 59, and 60 and over), with their average age.
- States: the people alive today by the state where they were born. The state records start in 1910, so they leave out anyone born earlier.
- Peak year, trend and the chart: these describe births, not people alive. The trend looks at births from 2014 to 2024: rising or declining when a straight line through those years climbs or falls by more than 100 births a year, stable otherwise.
Where the estimate can be off
- People born outside the US aren’t in the birth records, so names common among immigrants are undercounted. All the estimates together add up to about 274 million people, while the US has about 340 million residents.
- Very rare names and spellings drop out in any year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex received them.
- Older birth years are thinner: many people born before 1937 never applied for a Social Security number.
- Survival is an average. The life tables give the same chance of survival to everyone of the same sex and birth year, whatever their name.
- People who moved abroad or changed their first name are still counted under their birth name.
- Spellings are separate names. Muhammad, Mohammed and Mohammad each have their own page.
The estimate works best for names given mostly to people born in the US since the 1940s. For rare names, and for names common among people born abroad, treat it as a rough guide.
About the data
The figures combine the Social Security Administration’s baby name records (national and by state), the cohort life tables of the 2024 Social Security Trustees Report, and the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 population estimates. Name meanings, origins and pronunciations come from Behind the Name.
Questions about a figure? Email contact@howmanyofmee.com.