When you hear/see this name do you think it’s more of a boy’s name or girls??
With two m’s I definitely think girl. With one m, I wish it were used more on boys because I think it should be a boys’ name. But I’m afraid that it’s a girls’ name now–especially with the [name]Em[/name] type nns.
[name]Both[/name] are listed in the girl category for me. I agree that I think its because of all the [name]Emma[/name]'s, [name]Emily[/name]'s, [name]Emmeline[/name]'s, and etc. out there.
I think a girl, because of this little girl who lives in my old neighborhood. And plus, the nicknames [name]Emma[/name] and [name]Emmy[/name] just naturally come from it.
[name]Emerson[/name] and [name]Ellison[/name] (just giving another example) both sound like girls names to me, because they both have girly nicknames.
I think orginally this is really a boys’ name (from the 1900’s), but the girls’ have now claimed it.
Four-Five years ago when I would hear this name I totally thought BOY, because it’s a male name…now I really think more of a girls’ name since it’s so popular w/ girl’s now.
Did the popularity come from [name]Teri[/name] Hatcher naming her daughter [name]Emerson[/name]?
Well, up until about a year ago I definitely would have said boy…but lately I’ve been hearing a lot about little girls with this name, and it seems to me that the name is heading in that direction, at least for a while!
I still hear boy BUT personally I would chose it as first name for a girl over a boy because of the “[name]Em[/name]” beginning. I’m one of those who still loves the name [name]Emily[/name] so anything that walks by with and “[name]Em[/name]” in it I want to snatch up and use it for a girl. I think it would be a fantastic choice for a boys mn.
The name is all boy and it makes me sad that so many girls have the name now as I would love to use it some day for a son. Spelling wise, I think [name]Emmerson[/name] is feminine (and made up), but the sound is still masculine. Not to mention the fact that the name means “son of [name]Emery[/name]”
I think it is a girl’s name in light of names like [name]Allison[/name] and [name]Madison[/name]. I know [name]Madison[/name] was probably not meant to be the sensational hit that it became for girls, but then it does sound more like [name]Madeline[/name] and less like any particular boy’s name at its introduction in the mid 1980s. Compare the firmly masculine and well-used [name]Matthew[/name] to the much softer sounding [name]Madison[/name]… Likewise, [name]Allison[/name] doesn’t sound masculine. It is like [name]Alice[/name] or [name]Millicent[/name] and not like [name]Albert[/name] or [name]Allen[/name]. It is actually that S - [name]Emmett[/name] still sounds like a boy’s name like [name]Abbott[/name] or [name]David[/name] and not like [name]Juliet[/name] or [name]Scarlett[/name].
I also think the “son of” excuse might be weakened by the fact that a girl can have the last name [name]Emerson[/name] or [name]Andersen[/name] or MacDougal. This is not how surnames work in some other countries, where a daughter would get a surname signifying that she is the daughter of her father and her brothers would get a distinct surname meaning “son of”. If the customs give the name -son to daughters as well as sons, this effectively includes offspring of both sexes.
Despite the word [name]SON[/name] included in these names, it actually sounds like another name like [name]Jillian[/name] or [name]Marilyn[/name] only with an S for a prominent consonant on the last syllable. I fully understand the language history of these names, but sometimes names go because the boys weren’t using them, and sometimes you can’t say it’s ok for a girl’s last name because that’s just custom but hands off it for a first name, it means “son of.” I don’t think very many people considered the name [name]Emerson[/name] for a boy until they heard it around first, unfortunately for them, used on some girls.