English

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.
   • 1854 Matthew Hall: The Queens Before the Conquest: page 259-260:

     Both Saxon and Norman chroniclers unite in representing the youthful Queen Emma as in a peculiar degree gifted with elegance and beauty; so that many flattering epithets had been bestowed on her - as "the Pearl," "the Flower," or "the Fair Maid" of Normandy.

   • 1917 Carl Van Vechten: Interpreters and Interpretations. A.A.Knopf,1917. page 92:

     Emma Calvé...since Madame Bovary the name Emma suggests a solid bourgeois foundation, a country family...Emma Eames, a chilly name...a wind from the East.

   • 1980 Barbara Pym: A Few Green Leaves ISBN 0060805498 page 8:

     The cottage now belonged to Emma's mother Beatrix, who was a tutor in English literature at a women's college, specialising in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel. This may have accounted for Emma's Christian name, for it had seemed to Beatrix unfair to call her daughter Emily, a name associated with her grandmother's servants rather than the author of The Wuthering Heights, so Emma had been chosen, perhaps with the hope that some of the qualities possessed by the heroine of the novel might be perpetuated.

Usage notes

• Used in England since the Norman Conquest, fashionable in the 19th century, and again in the U.K. from the 1970s to the 1990s, and in the U.S.A. in the 1990s and the 2000s.

Related terms

• (pet forms) Em, Emmie, Emmy
• (female given names) Ermengarde, Irma
• (surnames) Emmett, Emmitt, Emmott

Translations

Danish

Etymology

From German Emma.

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.

References

• Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 21 325 females with the given name have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 2000s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.

Estonian

Etymology

From German Emma.

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.

Faroese

Proper noun

Emma f

1. A female given name

Usage notes

Matronymics

• son of Emma: Emmuson
• daughter of Emma: Emmudóttir

Declension

Finnish

Etymology

From German Emma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈemːɑ]
• Hyphenation: Em‧ma

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.
   • 1929 Väinö Siikaniemi/folk melody, Emma (song), in Suuri Toivelaulukirja , F-Kustannus Oy (2003), ISBN 951-643-668-4, page 210:

     Oi muistatkos, Emma, sen kuutamoillan,

     kun yhdessä tansseista kuljettiin?

     Sinä sanasi annoit ja valasi vannoit

     ja lupasit olla mun omani.

     Oi Emma, Emma, oi Emma, Emma,

     kun lupasit olla mun omani.

   • 1964 Kaarina Helakisa, Kaarina Helakisan satukirja, WSOY, page 10:

     ―Kuulepa lintu, sinun nimesi olkoon Emma, se on totta vieköön iloinen ja hupsu nimi, poika sanoi.

   • 1985 Keijo Siekkinen, Äidin hauta, Gummerus, ISBN 951-20-2727-5, page 9:

     Minulla on sana, josta pidän erityisen paljon, vaikka se ei ole paljon minkään näköinen, se on pulska niin kuin sinä ennen kuin rupesit laihtumaan. Sen sanan nimi on semmoinen. Minä laitan sen sinnekin minne se ei käy. Vaikka se on pulska niin se on kevyt. Se on niin kuin Emma. Emmalle me löydettiin nimi Messukylän vanhalta hautausmaalta.

Declension

Usage notes

• Popular in Finland at the end of the 19th century and again in the 2000s.

Related terms

• Emmi, Irma, Irmeli

Anagrams

• amme

French

Proper noun

Emma f

1. A female given name, equivalent to English Emma.
   • 1857 Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary: Part II, Chapter III: (translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling)

     Charles désirait qu’on appelât l’enfant comme sa mère ; Emma s’y opposait. On parcourut le calendrier d’un bout à l’autre, et l’on consulta les étrangers.

     Charles wanted the child to be called after her mother; Emma opposed this. They ran over the calendar from end to end, and then consulted outsiders.

Usage notes

• Popular in France in the 2000s.

German

Etymology

Short form of compound female given names beginning with Proto-Germanic *ermana, Proto-Germanic *irmina "whole, entire".

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.

Usage notes

• Name of medieval German saints and queens. Popular in Germany in the 19th century and becoming popular in the 2000s.

Related terms

• Emmi, Emmy, Irma, Irmgard

Latvian

Etymology

First recorded as a given name of Latvians in 1852. From German Emma.

Proper noun

Emma f

1. A female given name.

Usage notes

• Popular in Latvia in the end of the 19th century

References

• Klāvs Siliņš: Latviešu personvārdu vārdnīca. Riga "Zinātne" 1990, ISBN 5-7966-0278-0
• Population Register of Latvia: Emma was the only given name of 687 persons in Latvia on May 21st 2010.

Norwegian

Etymology

From German Emma. First recorded in Norway in the 1790s.

Proper noun

Emma

1. A female given name.

References

• Kristoffer Kruken - Ola Stemshaug: Norsk personnamnleksikon, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1995, ISBN 82-521-4483-7
• Statistisk sentralbyrå, Namnestatistikk: 8 241 females with the given name Emma living in Norway on January 1st 2011, with the frequency peak in the 2000s. Accessed on 19 May, 2011.

Swedish

Etymology

From German Emma. First recorded in Sweden in 1766.

Proper noun

Emma c

1. A female given name.

Related terms

• Emmy, Irma

References

• Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, ISBN 91-21-10937-0
• Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, ISBN 9119551622: 69 488 females with the given name Emma living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with frequency peaks in the 19th century and in the 2000s. Accessed on 19 June 2011.

English

Noun

emma ‎(plural emmas)

1. (Britain, dated, WWI, signalese) M in RAF phonetic alphabet

Derived terms

• ack emma
• pip emma

Plautdietsch

Adverb

emma

1. always

Synonyms

• stäts
• bestendich

Antonyms

• nienich (never)

Derived terms

• emmahan (anyhow, however)

See also

• eewich (eternal)
• foaken (often)
• selden (seldom)