Emile is the French form of the Roman family name Aemilius, which comes from the Latin aemulus and means "rival". Rousseau's treatise Émile and the novelist Émile Zola made it a classic in France, and Emil is the usual form in Germany and Scandinavia. In the United States Emile ranked number 2879 in 2000, peaked at number 1857 in 2021 and stands at number 2098 among boys' names in 2025.