Emmerson/Emerson

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 Em type nns.

Both are listed in the girl category for me. I agree that I think its because of all the Emma's, Emily's, Emmeline's, and etc. out there.

I think a girl, because of this little girl who lives in my old neighborhood. And plus, the nicknames Emma and Emmy just naturally come from it.
Emerson and Ellison (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 Teri Hatcher naming her daughter Emerson?

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 "Em" beginning. I'm one of those who still loves the name Emily so anything that walks by with and "Em" 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 Emmerson is feminine (and made up), but the sound is still masculine. Not to mention the fact that the name means "son of Emery"

I think it is a girl's name in light of names like Allison and Madison. I know Madison was probably not meant to be the sensational hit that it became for girls, but then it does sound more like Madeline and less like any particular boy's name at its introduction in the mid 1980s. Compare the firmly masculine and well-used Matthew to the much softer sounding Madison.. Likewise, Allison doesn't sound masculine. It is like Alice or Millicent and not like Albert or Allen. It is actually that S - Emmett still sounds like a boy's name like Abbott or David and not like Juliet or Scarlett.

I also think the "son of" excuse might be weakened by the fact that a girl can have the last name Emerson or Andersen 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 SON included in these names, it actually sounds like another name like Jillian or Marilyn 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 Emerson for a boy until they heard it around first, unfortunately for them, used on some girls.