My middle name is Emlyn, and every once in a while I get curious to see what the current consensus is about the meaning. I grew up understanding that it meant "waterfall," but when I was procrastinating in my college library one time I read that it meant something completely different! (I can't remember now, it might have been "warrior" or "thunder" or something else I didn't really identify with) Again, 15 years later I googled it while searching for names for my own children and saw it listed almost exclusively as a place name, as in "Newcastle Emlyn." It's now been another 10 years and I am not sure why I got the itch, but this most recent search has revealed mostly "Industrious" or "Rival," ugh! I was therefor pleased to find the variation listed on this website. Glens, in my experience, often have brooks and falls. So I feel like "Emlyn" has almost come full circle, back to "Waterfall." Why the consensus changes so much and so frequently is a question, though. On another note I, too, have observed that the majority of sites list the name as "Masculine," but my understanding is that this implies historical use. I can't really judge whether it "seems" masculine or feminine. Admittedly, I have never been the most feminine female, but female I am and Emlyn suits me fine.
― Anonymous User 4/12/2022
4
Personally I've never come across a female Emlyn before, and I'd be quite surprised to here in Britain. I can see why people might think it sounded more feminine if they're used to meeting Emilys and Emmas and never Emlyns, Emils, etc, but the same is true of me and I've never thought it sounded at all feminine. I'm not Welsh, and given that it falls outside my culture I wouldn't be comfortable changing the gender it's traditionally used for in Wales (though US parents often seem to do so with names from other cultures), but regardless of that I much prefer Emlyn as a boys' name myself. I think the sound is the perfect balance between soft and strong, it looks great written down and, on a practical level, it isn't hard to spell out to anyone who isn't familiar with the name. All round lovely name. :)
― Anonymous User 6/28/2020
1
Emlyn sounds so feminine to me, kinda like Emalynn! I actually love it for a girl. So beautiful and elegant. A nice feminine sounding name. I would never use it for a boy, sorry! There are a lot of feminine names I wasn’t expecting for a boy!
― Anonymous User 12/10/2018
-4
My name is Emlyn and I'm a female. And no, my parents didn't pick it because they liked the name "Emily" and wanted to be different. I, for one, loathe the name Emily, because people constantly misread or mishear my name and assume it's Emily. Yuck. A little clarification on male vs female: I think that while it originated as a male's name and is still most commonly a male's name in the UK, it seems to be more commonly a female's name in the US. Not sure why exactly that happened, probably because it was not as popular to begin with so people who heard it assumed female thanks to names like Emily. I think Emlyn works fine for either sex, personally.
I love the name Emlyn (for a boy of course) but it has been ruined by the horrible ultra popular name Emily. Sad. And Emlyn on a girl looks like someone was obsessed with the name Emily but said "hey lets make her different and call her Emlyn yay." That's stupid.
Girl? No girl in Wales would ever dream to be called Emlyn. My cousin is called Emlyn and it suits him.
― Anonymous User 2/11/2007
5
It seems very feminine to me, Emlin seems more masculine.
― Anonymous User 1/31/2007
-2
I've never seen this as a girl's name and to be honest I think it works on a boy much better. It's a really nice name; handsome and nice-sounding though very Welsh.
On another note I, too, have observed that the majority of sites list the name as "Masculine," but my understanding is that this implies historical use. I can't really judge whether it "seems" masculine or feminine. Admittedly, I have never been the most feminine female, but female I am and Emlyn suits me fine.