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At a Glance: Name: Amelia – Meaning: vigorous, active (traditionally also glossed as 'work') – Origin: Germanic – Gender: Girl – Pronunciation: ah-MEEL-yah
Amelia is a classic girl's name, pronounced ah-MEEL-yah. You may have heard it means 'work' or 'industrious,' a claim that borrows from Emily/Aemilia — but linguists actually trace Amelia to a separate Germanic root, amal, giving it the sense of 'vigorous, active' instead. So the Germanic-rooted meaning is real, just not the one most often repeated.
Meaning & Origin of Amelia
Meaning: Vigorous, active (traditionally also glossed as 'work').
Origin: Germanic.
A common claim: Amelia is widely said to mean 'work' or 'industrious.' Actually: Amelia is often assumed to share the Latin root of Emily/Aemilia, but linguists trace it instead to the separate Germanic element amal ('vigorous/active').
Source: Wiktionary, Wikipedia.
How to Pronounce Amelia
Phonetic: ah-MEEL-yah IPA: /əˈmiːljə/
Popularity of Amelia
Amelia ranked #3 in 2024, with 12,740 girls given the name that year — its highest rank on record in Social Security data going back to 1880.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration birth-name data, 1880–2024.
Make Amelia Name Art
Free printable nursery art for Amelia, pre-loaded below — pick a layout, palette, and font, then download a print-ready PNG.
Names With a Similar Story
Derived from shared style, era, and origin data (or, for names we have no style data for, a similar Social Security popularity trajectory) — not a hand-picked list.
FAQ
What does the name Amelia mean?
Vigorous, active (traditionally also glossed as ‘work’). (Source: Wiktionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Amelia)
How do you pronounce Amelia?
Amelia is pronounced ah-MEEL-yah (IPA: /əˈmiːljə/).
Is Amelia a popular name right now?
Amelia is at its highest recorded popularity right now, ranked #3 in 2024. (U.S. Social Security Administration data, 1880–2024.)
📊 How popular is Amelia? See the full popularity history, trend data, and ranking since 1880 with our free Baby Name Popularity Checker.
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