Emerson

"Brave and powerful" — a literary surname-name with intellectual warmth and rising unisex appeal

Emerson is an Old English surname meaning son of Emery, where Emery itself derives from the Germanic Emmerich, meaning whole, powerful ruler. It is most closely associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th-century American philosopher and poet who championed individualism and transcendentalism. As a given name, Emerson has grown steadily for both boys and girls, prized for its intellectual associations.