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Emily is... a strange one. On the one hand, there are no harsh sounds, yet the M does prevent the name from being too "liquid" (you still need to really move your mouth to say it). So its sound appeals to a lot of people. Couple this with the fact that it's visually appealing, and you have a recipe for massive popularity. Despite the fact that I have known way, way, way too many Emilys (Emilies?) in my life, I can't bring myself to hate the name.

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On the other hand, Emily is Exhibit A in confronting the hypocrisy of people who claim to dislike "made up" names or names "without meaning" on principle, when in most cases it's veiled racism. (Exhibit B is Imogen.) I say this because Emily originates from a Latin name meaning "rival." This means parents chose to name their daughter "rival," either out of ignorance or after looking up the meaning and deciding it didn't matter because Emily sounded nice. Yet in my experience, so many of these parents negatively judge the parents of Genesis, Destinee, Laniece, Tyshawn, Deonte... you get the idea.

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Please rate my personal name lists:

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www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/109399
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/91835
http://greens-end.myminicity.com/