A month ago, two people were found dead in the living room of their house located on a street called 905 Sister Street as they were packing up to move. A pizza is ordered to the house using an online pizza delivery service by what is presumably a deceased and ghostly girl named Emily Withers. A pizza delivery man who works at a company called Checkers Pizza (a spoof of Domino’s Pizza) comes to the house to fulfill the order. Details in the order explain that the door is open and to walk right in. When the pizza man walks in, announcing the delivery of the pizza, the door is closed and locked behind him. Emily briefly appears near the door when the lightning strikes, having apparently been responsible for locking the door. During his stay in the house, the pizza man encounters Emily and three living dolls named Kiki (a Porcelain doll), Mr. Tatters (a Clown doll), and Chester (a Ventriloquist dummy). In one of the rooms, he finds a flashlight.The developer, Shawn Hitchcock, announced that he will be releasing Emily Wants to Play on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, creating a VR update and a sequel titled Emily Wants to Play Too.
As the credits roll, Emily and her dolls face a tall figure (presumably the entity mentioned in the newspapers), saying that it won’t let her out anymore and now “they are one.”
The game begins with the player character, a pizza delivery man, walking into a house on his last pizza delivery. Upon entering, the front door closes and is locked, presumably by Emily, since she appears for an instant in front of the door. The player must then survive the night from 11 pm until 6 am. Each hour of the game an antagonist is added in the form of a doll or Emily. The player must then figure out how to interact with each doll and Emily herself in order to survive the hours (6 minutes). If a doll or Emily attacks the player, in the form of a jump scare, then the player loses and the game is over. However, the player can retry from the beginning of the last hour. There are various clues on notes and on a whiteboard in the kitchen that help the player to learn how to handle a doll when it appears (although what’s written on the whiteboard are usually lies meant to trick the player). The mechanic of each doll and Emily’s game build upon each other. The player has to survive by performing tasks with the dolls in the form of children’s games.Emily Wants to Play is a survival horror video game created by Indie developer Shawn Hitchcock. The game was released for macOS and Windows on December 10, 2015. iOS and Android on January 30, 2016. PlayStation 4 on August 9, 2016. Xbox One on September 9, 2016. and Oculus Rift on October 31, 2016. A sequel titled Emily Wants to Play Too was released in December 13, 2017.
Emily and the dolls want to play variations of children’s games with the pizza man, namely peek-a-boo, red light green light, hide-and-seek and tag but will kill him if he makes a wrong move or is caught by Chester. A whiteboard in the kitchen tells the opposite of what he has to do to survive (although it sometimes has comments or facts that aren’t lies). There is also a laptop in the kitchen that was used to order the pizza. If the pizza man plays these games correctly and survives from 11 pm to 6 am, Emily and the dolls will let him out of the house.
The player takes the role of a pizza delivery man that has been trapped in a house by a young girl named Emily and her three dolls. Each level of the game is represented by a different hour of the night from 11 pm until 6 am. During these levels, various combinations of the dolls and Emily appear. The player must learn how to interact with Emily and her dolls in order to survive the night.When the pizza delivery man finally escapes, the police come back to check the house. The subsequent news report states that the pizza man is now under psychiatric evaluation, but the dolls matching his description have been recovered.
Apart from the default ending, there are also two alternate endings in the game. The first can be achieved during the 6 am area at the player’s apartment. If the player turns off the light, he will start to get scared. If he stays like this for over a minute, noises will be heard in the dark, suggesting that the dolls are gathering around him. Finally, the local journal reports that the protagonist died because he tripped and suffered a fatal injury. The second one can be achieved when he comes inside the Central Evidence for the first time where he sees Chester performing a ritual and runs away in terror.
At 3 AM, all three dolls become hostile. The player has to memorize how to deal with the dolls separately. To make it more difficult, the player may encounter two dolls at the same time.
At 4 AM, Emily (the demon-like girl) will become hostile. The player will see a timer on the bottom of the screen counting down. When the timer is seen, the player will not be allowed to turn on any light. The player must obtain a flashlight before this point to avoid being killed. If they do have a flashlight, they’ll have to look for Emily around the house. The player can now can enter the basement without getting killed instantly by Emily, since she’s already active. Once they player finds Emily, they must touch her, which will cause her to disappear, resetting the timer and causing her to teleport somewhere else. This process must be repeated.
Emily Wants to Play Too begins at 6 am in the protagonist’s apartment, after having a large party. The protagonist has to get to work at Timmy Thom’s Fast Sandwiches (a spoof of Jimmy John’s Sandwiches) by 4 pm. At this point, he decides to rest before that time. While the protagonist sleeps, he seems to have the same nightmare he has been having in his previous slumbers where he encountered Emily and her dolls. When he officially awakens, he takes a shower and washes dishes before delivering a sandwich order to a research facility known as Central Evidence. Arriving there at 7 pm, he gets locked in and witnesses Chester performing some sort of ritual. He later sees Kiki bringing Maxwell Steeles to life using a similar ritual. The protagonist’s objective is to discover keycards that gain access to four area levels and survive until 7 am before he can escape Emily and her dolls and exit the building. During this time, they start a fire in the building to destroy evidence of their existence and confiscate fire extinguishers in the building. Whiteboards in the building provide hints to help the protagonist; however, some are lies used to deceive him.
The game introduces three new dolls: Weasl, Maxwell Steeles (a man disguised as a store mannequin), and Greta. The original dolls are still present. The newspaper articles found within the building explain the backstories of Emily and the six dolls, implying that they are possessed by an evil entity (presumed to be the spirit of a puppet master named Vult Ludere, who is the original owner of Kiki, Mr. Tatters, and Chester, and is possibly the figure that was depicted on one of the notes in the original game).At 12 AM, Kiki (the porcelain doll) becomes hostile. When the player hears her laugh, it means she could either be right behind the player or somewhere in the room. If the player comes across her, they need to look at her until she vanishes. Only when she disappears is the player completely safe (until her laugh is audible again somewhere).At 2 AM, Chester (the ventriloquist dummy) becomes hostile. He has a kid-like laugh. When he laughs, the player must run away from the room they’re currently in to avoid being killed. The only way to escape him is by getting out of the room he is present in.According to the notes in the house, Emily was a girl who suffered depression and found comfort in the dolls in the basement. She considered the dolls her friends, but her parents wanted to take them away from her. The recordings left behind seem to be from Maggie Withers, Emily’s mother, and were recorded to help with her cope with her own depression. The recordings explain that Emily acted strangely ever since they moved here, presumably because she didn’t like her new home. Emily showed signs of erratic and violent behavior, which led her to harm other children at school and kill a puppy that they bought her as a gift. Because of this, her parents decided to keep her at home and lock her in the basement. During this time, Emily found the dolls, and even stranger events began occurring. The dolls started appearing around the house without anyone moving them, and Emily had opened up a giant hole in the floor of her room, which would be impossible for a small child to do. One day, Emily was found lifeless in the basement, having died of unknown circumstances, which scared the parents into planning to move to a new house.
In the default ending, a file revealing the accident at the Central Evidence and the dolls are shown while also indicating that the protagonist is now under psychiatric evaluation. The police believe him to be responsible for the fire that destroyed Central Evidence. Because he didn’t deliver the order, he lost his job. The man reading the story is hinted to be the pizza delivery man from the first game, who suggests that he should “go back to that house.”
News audio that plays on a static television explains that a couple was killed a month ago while preparing to move. These two people are presumably Emily’s parents, and someone had killed them before they could move, possibly Emily’s angered ghost or one of her dolls. There are hints of a possible subplot. The phrases “Join Us” and “We Are One” can be seen written on a few notes, on the bottom of a crashed computer and heard at the end of a recording in the basement. There is also a strange figure depicted behind what looks like Emily and her dolls on the back of one of the notes.At 1 AM, Mr. Tatters (the clown doll) becomes hostile. He will laugh and make sounds to detect the player’s movement. If the player remains completely still, it is possible for them to avoid being attacked. He will also come in front of the player sometimes, but under no condition must the player move or click anywhere. After some time, he will sigh and leave the player alone. Once he disappears, the player is free to move around again.
For the original game (Emily Wants to Play), review aggregator Metacritic found that the game received “generally favourable reviews”. Gamespew praised the game’s creation of a “disconcerting atmosphere” and effective jumpscares, but found the gameplay to be overly luck-based in luck at times. Brash Games criticised the game for “leaning a little too heavily on its jump-scares to carve out a unique personality” but still considered it a “potent” horror title. Similarly, Digitally Downloaded praised the effectiveness of the game’s jumpscares but ultimately found it “difficult to get invested” in.Pendleton is located in the gatehouse, where he can be witnessed speaking with his bodyguard, Captain Ren. Pendleton realizes that the Loyalists have failed and tells Ren that he should have killed them when he had the chance.
If Emily is saved, upon speaking with her, she will reveal that she would have executed the Loyalists if Corvo had not killed them. Then, with Corvo’s help, she ascends the throne and begins a new age of terror and corruption, leaving her doll on his grave when he dies.
The final cutscene plays, the Outsider explaining that with Corvo’s help, Emily leads the Empire into a new golden age free of the rat plague. She is thereafter known as Emily the Wise.
The Light at the End is the ninth and final mission in Dishonored, in which Corvo Attano must confront the leaders of the Loyalist Conspiracy and rescue Emily Kaldwin from Kingsparrow Island.Corvo must find a way to neutralize Havelock and save Emily. If he moves too close to Havelock or takes too long to act, the man will jump, taking Emily with him.
Corvo will overhear Farley Havelock speaking to Martin and Pendleton in a celebratory manner, which gradually turns more reflective and regretful as he continues. There are no guards inside, allowing Corvo to move freely. Upon reaching the penthouse, he discovers that Martin and Pendleton are dead, poisoned by Havelock, who fears that his actions will come back to destroy him. If Corvo has killed none of the assassination targets, Havelock’s speech reflects this information, and he laments not being as good a man as Corvo.
The last guard holds the key to the elevator and may be neutralized or pickpocketed. The key can also be found in the gatehouse. However the key is not necessary, as Corvo can climb onto elevator’s cabin and enter through a hatch on the roof.Should Corvo not save Emily, the end scene will show the Empire in total despair, decimated by the rat plague. Corvo leaves his mask and blade on Emily’s grave and sails away on an outbound ship. To reach the fort, Corvo must make his way past several guards and Overseers with music boxes. Depending on which route he takes, he may encounter an arc pylon and a watchtower. There are three main entrances to the fort. Each entrance is protected by a wall of light that can be deactivated in the Control Room. There is a visible entrance to the sewers located between both gates. This entry point leads to the Control Room and Corvo will be able to deactivate both walls of light from there. There will be at least one guard in the Control Room and multiple guards patrolling outside both entrances. If Corvo has the Control Room Key, he will be able to access the courtyard through the Control Room. In high chaos, Martin can first be encountered in the courtyard, trading insults with Pendleton. Once the argument is over, Martin will retire to a room on the highest level of the fort.The leaders of the Loyalist Conspiracy have moved to a monumental lighthouse, the final military project devised by the Lord Regent. They’re holding Emily Kaldwin as they struggle to tighten their hold over the city. It’s time to confront them, decide their fates, and determine the future of Dunwall.Returning Home • Dishonored • High Overseer Campbell • House of Pleasure • The Royal Physician • Lady Boyle’s Last Party • Return to the Tower • The Flooded District • The Loyalists • The Light at the EndUpon Corvo’s arrival, Ren will turn hostile, and Corvo must fight him off before speaking to Pendleton. The noble can be found on the floor, sitting against a wall. He is wounded and bleeding from a pistol shot, though he does not know who shot him.
There is no need for Corvo to kill Pendleton, as he will die from his wounds, but if Corvo decides to kill the noble, his sword strike will play in slow motion, but there will be no death animation.
Martin and Pendleton are on the island itself, while Havelock and Emily are alone in the lighthouse. Corvo is greeted by an empty main hall with pools of blood leading up to the roof. Havelock stands with Emily on a ledge, struggling with her and shouting about his failed coup. When Corvo approaches, Havelock grabs Emily and stands near the ledge, threatening to jump. As Emily fights for her life, Havelock says that Corvo is the worst of the conspirators and is “terrible at saving Empresses.”Pendleton will then proceed to mock Corvo, telling him that his family is broke and that “everyone knows [he was] screwing the Empress,” and that if he likes noblewomen, he should meet his cousin Celia. An additional entrance to the sewers may be found midway up a cliff past the beachside entrance to the fort, allowing access without having to pass through a wall of light. Corvo can swim to and then blink into the opening without being noticed. Corvo will arrive at the top level of the lighthouse, with several guards patrolling the area outside. Corvo’s assassination target can be found in the interior of the lighthouse. Corvo can either:
Additionally, Corvo can blink up the rocks attached to large metal cables that are moored into the cliff as support structures. The farther of the two rocks is easier to reach, as it is smaller. Using a combination of Blink and agility, from the water, Corvo can get to the top of the rock to reach the cable. He can then run along these cables, gaining access to the second map within minutes, alerting no guards, and requiring no further action. This path is useful for maintaining low chaos.
Once Corvo has entered the fort, he will find himself in a courtyard. Multiple guards will be patrolling the area and guarding the entrance to the Lighthouse’s elevator. Corvo must move through the courtyard to the gatehouse using stealth or violence.
Upon seeing Corvo, he will put his pistol to his jaw and then explain to the assassin why the Loyalists betrayed him. He reveals that they had good intentions at first, but as they turned to ordering deaths and blackmail, it “became a habit.” Martin tells Corvo that having power over an empire “weighs heavily on a man’s mind” and then says that Corvo has every right to curse those who betrayed him, but he will not let the assassin kill him. His last words are, “I was born into nothing, and it’s nothing I’ll return to” before he pulls the trigger, killing himself.Sara’s Room is a hidden special room through which somebody is able to look at the hallway. It has a simple bed in and sand all over the ground. Sara had spent almost three years in that room and painted a white tally mark on the wall for each day she spent there. However, this was later confirmed to be a ruse, as she was working with Charles as Red Coat and the Black Widow.
The “Prom” they were forced to play, was a remake of the prom Melissa and Ian attended seven years ago (“A Night at the Opera”). This hints that Charlotte went or wanted to go to that prom too.
A’s Dollhouse is a fully built underground lair belonging to “A”. It has exact replicas of The Liars’ bedrooms except for Mona’s (instead, Mona slept in a replica of Ali’s bedroom because “A” wanted Mona to believe she is Ali), making it like a life-size dollhouse with the girls as the dolls. “A” installed cameras in every room and was able to stalk the girls while sitting in her lair. There was also a vocal system installed which told the girls what to do. The vocal system is installed to speak four languages: English, German, French, and Spanish. The dollhouse was first shown in “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, the episode when the Liars, except Alison, were kidnapped and brought into the dollhouse. The Dollhouse consists of thirteen (known) rooms and an electrical fenced in “backyard”.
The Hole is a pit dug into the ground. It’s in a single room and “A” took Mona there and left her without food and water for days. There’s a rope inside, which The Liars used to pull Mona out with. It served a sort of threat to the Liars in case they didn’t go through A’s games.
In “Game On, Charles”, all of The Liars (excluding Mona) go into the lair when the main generator shut down. They burned The Vault down in order to find Mona and escape – which they succeeded in.Unable to kidnap Alison, “A” kidnapped Mona in “Taking This One to the Grave” who had to pretend that she is Alison. After helping Mona fake her death, “A” kidnapped Mona and held her in the dollhouse for over four months. Mona is mostly seen with an Alison Mask on, to maintain the illusion of being her.The dollhouse also includes and exact replica of Alison’s bedroom where Mona Vanderwaal, pretending to be Alison, had to reside in. Ultimately, A planned to have Alison “move in” and most likely get rid of Mona in the process.
For Spencer’s room counts the same as for all the other rooms. However, Spencer threw a chair against one of the windows in the replica of her bedroom following the glass to break down and revealing cement walls and that she was trapped underground.
The room is connected to A’s Vault through a ventilation shaft and Charlotte used it to escape. The Liars used the ventilation shaft to get into the vault. There is an unnamed room which takes place in a basement of sorts. This is where “A” set up stations where the Liar’s had to plan out his prom he had theoretically missed out on. The Liars attended the “Demented Prom” where Mona, playing the part of Alison, was named Prom Queen while Spencer, Aria, Hanna, Emily and Mona named Charles prom king when they were planning on escaping the dollhouse and get away from “A”. The vocal system installed in A’s dollhouse is also able to play different sounds; one of them is a chime that has different meanings depending on how often the chime was played:Just as the rest of the Liars, Aria woke up in an exact replica of her bedroom, locked inside. The room consists of plastic books as well as cement in closet. She had to pretend that it was her real bedroom just as all the other Liars had to, otherwise they would receive a form of torture or an ear piercing siren would go off. It only opened when “A” allowed it or when the electricity fell down for 3 minutes daily.
The Vault is a room in which are kept A’s most precious and treasured things. When the electricity to the dollhouse was cut, Spencer went into the room to have a look around. There were photos of Jessica DiLaurentis/Mary and two little boys, Jason and Charlotte/CeCe. After Spencer found a video, it’s revealed Jessica and someone unknown (assumed to be Kenneth) took the boys to the Campbell Farm to go apple picking. Charlotte found Spencer watching that video and they had seemed to have a little confrontation before Mona came into the vault and scared Charlotte off. After she had picked up a photo of a boy, she stated that The Vault was nothing like she thought it’d be and that “A” actually has a soul.
As the Liars were having “Tea Time”, “A” chimed a bell indicating it was time to play a game. Mona led the Liars to a Game Room, which resembled a little child’s toy room, and sat them down at a table. The game they played was a popular old game, Mystery Date. When the Liars opened two of the doors, Caleb and Ezra had their pictures in the game from the Ice Ball way back in “How the ‘A’ Stole Christmas”, which Charlotte got while she attended the Ice Ball. This is where Spencer found the blocks that spelled out “Charles”.
The dollhouse also owns a morgue. “A” placed Emily, Aria, Spencer, and Hanna here after he had put them to sleep. They all woke up without clothes and white blankets over them. According to Mona, they slept about 3-4 hours inside the morgue. Later on, it’s revealed A knocked the Liars out in order to place GPS microchips inside the back of their necks, allowing the Liars’ every move to be tracked outside the Dollhouse.When Hanna first woke up in the replica of her room she thought she was home. However, it turned out that she was in A’s dollhouse. Just like all the other Liars, she was only able to open it when “A” allowed it or when the electricity fell down.
Nice to meet you, then. My name is Emily, and I am the doormat that you step over as you cross through the entryway to your dreams. The welcome sign for your thoughtless pleasantries and the paper upon which you scribble your ideas of what sort of woman I should be. I am the sound of a wet raspberry: predictable, not totally offensive, a sound made funny out of mechanical repetition. Emily—a name that now feels inextricable from the millennial pink that once adorned alternating tiles on Your Average Influencer’s Instagram profile, the girl bosses who redpilled the babies of the 90s only to sabotage their own empires (I’ll add that there’s an Emily for that, too), and the staples of tacky millennial-hood: Starbucks tumblers, SoulCycle memberships, and skinny jeans.
Besides, just like the recession, our indicted former president, and the general state of the world, I had no say in what my name would be. I was a baby. My parents picked it because they loved it, and that’s all that really matters to me. But if you think there are too many Emilys in the world, kindly take it up with the boomers and leave me and my “heroically ordinary life” out of it.Fast forward 20-odd years and the name Emily is now as terribly common as a white man with a podcast and a beanie. As the Times notes, we’re in Paris, we’re criminals, and we’re getting apologies in a boygenius song—all of which justify why I feel I must always be prepared to differentiate myself in some way. Hi, I’m Emily. No, the other Emily. The writer Emily (a different Emily worked at this website in 2021). The dancer Emily (well, there are many of us, too). The curly-haired Jewish Emily who is not a very good Jew! Goddamnit. But then I think of Shakespeare and his babbling about names and roses and lovers bound by death (I also find it ridiculously Emily of me to turn to someone as over-quoted as Shakespeare at this juncture, but alas, us basic bitches always come crawling back). Even if I were named Francesca or Apple or Iris, I’d still be this person: the same curly-haired, hyper-femme writer, and still a bad Jew. Please note that the original topic has been published and is available on The New York Times the editing team at PressBee have verified it and it may have been partially modified or quoted from it. You can read and follow this news or topic from its main source. The Poetry Foundation often receives questions about Emily Dickinson’s poems, particularly the typographical, orthographical, and grammatical “errors” in copies of her poems found on the website. Emily Dickinson died in Amherst in 1886. After her death her family members found her hand-sewn books, or “fascicles.” These fascicles contained nearly 1,800 poems. Though Mabel Loomis Todd and Higginson published the first selection of her poems in 1890, a complete volume did not appear until 1955. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, the poems still bore the editorial hand of Todd and Higginson. It was not until R.W. Franklin’s version of Dickinson’s poems appeared in 1998 that her order, unusual punctuation and spelling choices were completely restored.Ms. Morse, who lives in Los Angeles, believes that incorporating her name into the title of her podcast has made the subject matter seem more approachable. “Emily is somebody that you can trust with your deep intimate challenges in your life,” as she put it. But some people have felt otherwise. “I actually got an email once from a parent saying, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself that you’re disgracing the name Emily,’” she said.
Emilie Rose Hawtin, 36, might have gladly traded spellings when she was growing up. \u201cI grew up in New Jersey \u2014 I did not grow up in Paris \u2014 and I was self-conscious about my name as a kid because it seemed a little foreign,\u201d said Ms. Hawtin, who works in fashion in New York. \u201cI\u2019d never correct anybody who pronounced or spelled it wrong because that just seemed snobby.\u201d Eventually, Ms. Hawtin said, she realized that the French spelling \u201cprobably makes me sound more interesting than I actually am, which I\u2019m grateful for.\u201dTo expecting parents in the 1990s, the name Emily offered a “safe and friendly and well-liked way to step away from the crowd,” Ms. Wattenberg said. She grew up in Amherst, Mass., where an effort to rename the town has prompted suggestions including Emily, in honor of Emily Dickinson, who was born there.
Maybe you fell in love with an Emily, and the name makes you swoon. Maybe an Emily broke your heart, and hearing the name stings. Or maybe you’re an Emilia who has been called Emily your entire life by mistake — now even more frequently thanks to autocorrect — and you’ve come to resent it a bit as a result.
But Ms. Parrish has learned to love her name, she said. “It fits me,” she said. “I love how simple and straightforward it is.” She added, “I want every girl — every Black girl, every African American girl whose name is Emily, who feels like it’s so plain and simple and old school, to be proud about having that name.” Ask an Emily, though, and many will tell you they\u2019ve never met an Emily they didn\u2019t like, as no fewer than five interviewed for this article did. (Emily Blunt declined to comment; Ms. Ratajkowski and Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, did not respond to requests for comment.) The glut of Emilys in Ms. Bridgers’s life has caused problems, or perhaps fun, at least for a sliver of the online world energized by the release of her song “Emily I’m Sorry” on the new album by boygenius. Apparently she knows so many Emilys that sleuths on Reddit have tried to identify which one the song is about (boygenius declined to comment on the song’s inspiration for this article).
Emily Adams Bode Aujla, 33, a fashion designer, said she was named after \u201cEmmie,\u201d a 1968 song by Laura Nyro that her mother loved. Ms. Bode Aujla, who lives in New York, added that her mother wanted her to have \u201ca timeless name that was sort of melodic.\u201d
John Patton Ford, the director of \u201cEmily the Criminal,\u201d chose the name for its protagonist because it is \u201cheroically ordinary,\u201d he said. In the movie, Emily starts scamming people as a way to pay off student loans, and her misdeeds escalate. Mr. Ford, 41, said that the story is about an ordinary person who begins to do something extraordinary.
Ask an Emily, though, and many will tell you they’ve never met an Emily they didn’t like, as no fewer than five interviewed for this article did. (Emily Blunt declined to comment; Ms. Ratajkowski and Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, did not respond to requests for comment.)\u201cI think that\u2019s only because it\u2019s become so popular that people are starting to avoid it,\u201d said Jennifer Moss, who founded the website Babynames.com in 1996, the year that Emily began its 11-year run as the most popular name for baby girls.Ms. Wattenberg explained that many people who became expecting parents at the time wanted alternatives to names like Jennifer, Michelle or others that were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Those people, she added, also avoided names like Linda, Susan and others common when their parents were born. Emily, Ms. Watternberg said, was classic and familiar. \u201cEveryone could spell and pronounce it, but it wasn\u2019t terribly common,\u201d she said.
John Patton Ford, the director of “Emily the Criminal,” chose the name for its protagonist because it is “heroically ordinary,” he said. In the movie, Emily starts scamming people as a way to pay off student loans, and her misdeeds escalate. Mr. Ford, 41, said that the story is about an ordinary person who begins to do something extraordinary.
To avoid confusion with the handful of other Emilys who have worked with her over the years, Ms. Hyland has been known to wear a shirt that reads: \u201cYes, the real Emily.\u201dEmily Hyland, 40, a restaurateur, said that a lot of people identify with the name, at least according to how many she has seen posing outside Emily, her New York pizza restaurant. Emily Oster, 43, an economist and writer whose work often focuses on parenting, said she thinks of Emily as a name for people who are going to be friendly. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to have a difficult phone call with an Emily,\u201d said Ms. Oster, who lives in Providence, R.I. She added, \u201cTo be clear, I don\u2019t think this particularly overlaps in my personality.\u201d An AppleTV+ series, \u201cDickinson,\u201d was inspired by her; it debuted in 2019 and lasted for three seasons. A film released in February about her British peer Emily Bront\u00eb had a different one-word title: \u201cEmily.\u201d
For the last four years, Ms. Oberg has been living in Los Angeles and Paris, where she said she gets \u201cEmily in Paris\u201d associations all the time. \u201cI think it\u2019s cute,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a funny show.\u201d (Netflix has said that Emily Cooper\u2019s name \u201cis supposed to be pronounced with a French accent so \u2018Emily\u2019 and \u2018Paris\u2019 rhyme\u201d; the show\u2019s creator, Darren Star, did not respond to requests for comment.)
She’s in Paris. She’s a criminal. She’s the titular star of a new biopic. She’s being apologized to by Phoebe Bridgers, and she has recently made headlines for smooching Harry Styles. Turn a corner lately, or turn on a TV, and there she is: Emily.“It probably wouldn’t be for another couple of generations,” said Ms. Moss, who compared the name Emily to a little black dress, the type of garment that never truly goes out of style.
The eldest Emilys among those tens of millions of people are now 27. That is not only about the age of the protagonist in the 2022 film \u201cEmily the Criminal,\u201d but also close in age to Emily Cooper, the charming if not basic American protagonist of the Netflix show \u201cEmily in Paris.\u201d Cooper, as noted by Glamour, turned 29 in the second season.
Ms. Wattenberg explained that many people who became expecting parents at the time wanted alternatives to names like Jennifer, Michelle or others that were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Those people, she added, also avoided names like Linda, Susan and others common when their parents were born. Emily, Ms. Watternberg said, was classic and familiar. “Everyone could spell and pronounce it, but it wasn’t terribly common,” she said. When Ms. Morse was a child in the 1970s, she didn\u2019t think Emily was a popular name. Her mother chose it for her, she said, after spotting the actress Emily McLaughlin\u2019s name in the credits of \u201cGeneral Hospital\u201d while she was pregnant. By the time Ms. Morse was in her 20s, in the 1990s, she started encountering the name more. For the last four years, Ms. Oberg has been living in Los Angeles and Paris, where she said she gets “Emily in Paris” associations all the time. “I think it’s cute,” she said. “It’s a funny show.” (Netflix has said that Emily Cooper’s name “is supposed to be pronounced with a French accent so ‘Emily’ and ‘Paris’ rhyme”; the show’s creator, Darren Star, did not respond to requests for comment.)
But Ms. Parrish has learned to love her name, she said. \u201cIt fits me,\u201d she said. \u201cI love how simple and straightforward it is.\u201d She added, \u201cI want every girl \u2014 every Black girl, every African American girl whose name is Emily, who feels like it\u2019s so plain and simple and old school, to be proud about having that name.\u201dAccording to the Social Security Administration, Emily was one of the top five names for girls born in the United States in the 1990s. If you haven\u2019t met an Emily born in that decade, maybe you\u2019ve heard of Emily Ratajkowski, 31, or the TikTok star Emily Mariko, also 31.
“I think that’s only because it’s become so popular that people are starting to avoid it,” said Jennifer Moss, who founded the website Babynames.com in 1996, the year that Emily began its 11-year run as the most popular name for baby girls.
Emilie Rose Hawtin, 36, might have gladly traded spellings when she was growing up. “I grew up in New Jersey — I did not grow up in Paris — and I was self-conscious about my name as a kid because it seemed a little foreign,” said Ms. Hawtin, who works in fashion in New York. “I’d never correct anybody who pronounced or spelled it wrong because that just seemed snobby.” Eventually, Ms. Hawtin said, she realized that the French spelling “probably makes me sound more interesting than I actually am, which I’m grateful for.”
Since 2007, the name has become less popular, as others that end with a soft A — like Emma, Sophia, Olivia and Isabella — have risen. In 2020, according to the Social Security Administration, Emily was the 18th most-popular name for girls born in the United States; the next year, it fell to No. 21.As she got older, Ms. Parrish, 28, noticed that her name, at least on paper, could lead to certain assumptions. She said that many times, when she is applying for opportunities, people assume that she is white, often until she has an in-person interview. Once people realize she is Black, Ms. Parrish added, some have “shown it in their face, body language or energy” that she was not the person they were looking for.
Emily Oster, 43, an economist and writer whose work often focuses on parenting, said she thinks of Emily as a name for people who are going to be friendly. “You’re not going to have a difficult phone call with an Emily,” said Ms. Oster, who lives in Providence, R.I. She added, “To be clear, I don’t think this particularly overlaps in my personality.”
She\u2019s in Paris. She\u2019s a criminal. She\u2019s the titular star of a new biopic. She\u2019s being apologized to by Phoebe Bridgers, and she has recently made headlines for smooching Harry Styles. Turn a corner lately, or turn on a TV, and there she is: Emily. Emily Parrish, a makeup artist in Atlanta, disliked her name growing up, too, but for different reasons. “People used to make fun of me for being an African American girl with a so-called Caucasian name,” Ms. Parrish said, so she would go by the nicknames Millie or Mil. “I felt like it didn’t fit me — like it was an old lady name.” Emily Parrish, a makeup artist in Atlanta, disliked her name growing up, too, but for different reasons. \u201cPeople used to make fun of me for being an African American girl with a so-called Caucasian name,\u201d Ms. Parrish said, so she would go by the nicknames Millie or Mil. \u201cI felt like it didn\u2019t fit me \u2014 like it was an old lady name.\u201d Emily Adams Bode Aujla, 33, a fashion designer, said she was named after “Emmie,” a 1968 song by Laura Nyro that her mother loved. Ms. Bode Aujla, who lives in New York, added that her mother wanted her to have “a timeless name that was sort of melodic.” The glut of Emilys in Ms. Bridgers\u2019s life has caused problems, or perhaps fun, at least for a sliver of the online world energized by the release of her song \u201cEmily I\u2019m Sorry\u201d on the new album by boygenius. Apparently she knows so many Emilys that sleuths on Reddit have tried to identify which one the song is about (boygenius declined to comment on the song\u2019s inspiration for this article).The eldest Emilys among those tens of millions of people are now 27. That is not only about the age of the protagonist in the 2022 film “Emily the Criminal,” but also close in age to Emily Cooper, the charming if not basic American protagonist of the Netflix show “Emily in Paris.” Cooper, as noted by Glamour, turned 29 in the second season. To expecting parents in the 1990s, the name Emily offered a \u201csafe and friendly and well-liked way to step away from the crowd,\u201d Ms. Wattenberg said. She grew up in Amherst, Mass., where an effort to rename the town has prompted suggestions including Emily, in honor of Emily Dickinson, who was born there. At a recent yoga class, Ms. Morse was one of three Emilys in the room, along with \u201cEmily by the door,\u201d as her teacher referred to one, and \u201cEmily in the center.\u201dAs she got older, Ms. Parrish, 28, noticed that her name, at least on paper, could lead to certain assumptions. She said that many times, when she is applying for opportunities, people assume that she is white, often until she has an in-person interview. Once people realize she is Black, Ms. Parrish added, some have \u201cshown it in their face, body language or energy\u201d that she was not the person they were looking for.
An AppleTV+ series, “Dickinson,” was inspired by her; it debuted in 2019 and lasted for three seasons. A film released in February about her British peer Emily Brontë had a different one-word title: “Emily.”
He described the name Emily as a blank canvas that audiences could project whatever they wanted onto the character. Emily, Mr. Ford said, is “unsuspicious,” a name that doesn’t attract attention.
Emily Oberg, 29, the founder of the brand Sporty and Rich, said that Emily was always the nice girl in movies. \u201cIt\u2019s not a villain name,\u201d she said.
As a child, Ms. Long would try out different spellings of her name, like Emilie or Emilee. \u201cI tried to make it a little more funky,\u201d she said.Ms. Morse, who lives in Los Angeles, believes that incorporating her name into the title of her podcast has made the subject matter seem more approachable. \u201cEmily is somebody that you can trust with your deep intimate challenges in your life,\u201d as she put it. But some people have felt otherwise. \u201cI actually got an email once from a parent saying, \u2018You should be ashamed of yourself that you\u2019re disgracing the name Emily,\u2019\u201d she said.At a recent yoga class, Ms. Morse was one of three Emilys in the room, along with “Emily by the door,” as her teacher referred to one, and “Emily in the center.”
Nice, of course, can sometimes be a substitute for another word — boring — which is how Emily Dawn Long, 32, a fashion designer in New York, felt about her name when she was younger. “Growing up, I was never like, I have a really rad name!” Ms. Long said. She first met Ms. Bode Aujla, her fellow fashion designer, at a vintage clothing show when someone called out, “Emily,” and both women emerged from separate dressing rooms.
\u201cIt probably wouldn\u2019t be for another couple of generations,\u201d said Ms. Moss, who compared the name Emily to a little black dress, the type of garment that never truly goes out of style.
To avoid confusion with the handful of other Emilys who have worked with her over the years, Ms. Hyland has been known to wear a shirt that reads: “Yes, the real Emily.”
The name’s popularity around the turn of the 21st century was an organic phenomenon, said Laura Wattenberg, the author of “The Baby Name Wizard” and the founder of Namerology, a website with a focus on names. “There wasn’t a single prominent Emily who sparked the whole thing,” Ms. Wattenberg said.When Ms. Morse was a child in the 1970s, she didn’t think Emily was a popular name. Her mother chose it for her, she said, after spotting the actress Emily McLaughlin’s name in the credits of “General Hospital” while she was pregnant. By the time Ms. Morse was in her 20s, in the 1990s, she started encountering the name more.Nice, of course, can sometimes be a substitute for another word \u2014 boring \u2014 which is how Emily Dawn Long, 32, a fashion designer in New York, felt about her name when she was younger. \u201cGrowing up, I was never like, I have a really rad name!\u201d Ms. Long said. She first met Ms. Bode Aujla, her fellow fashion designer, at a vintage clothing show when someone called out, \u201cEmily,\u201d and both women emerged from separate dressing rooms.Since 2007, the name has become less popular, as others that end with a soft A \u2014 like Emma, Sophia, Olivia and Isabella \u2014 have risen. In 2020, according to the Social Security Administration, Emily was the 18th most-popular name for girls born in the United States; the next year, it fell to No. 21.From
1996 to 2007, when some 48 million people were born in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emily held the No. 1 spot. In 2006, American Girl released a doll named Emily Bennett. Emily Morse, 52, a writer and the host of a podcast called \u201cSex With Emily,\u201d said that women who share her name will often call in to her show. Many, she said, like many of the Emilys born around the turn of the 21st century, are in their mid-to-late 20s. The name has been used for centuries. It’s an evolution of the Latin name Aemilia, and the English spelling has been popularized by such historical figures as Princess Amelia in 18th-century England, who was called Emily by contemporaries, and the 19th-century poets Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë. Emily Post, the 20th century’s arbiter of etiquette, added to its pedigree.According to the Social Security Administration, Emily was one of the top five names for girls born in the United States in the 1990s. If you haven’t met an Emily born in that decade, maybe you’ve heard of Emily Ratajkowski, 31, or the TikTok star Emily Mariko, also 31.
The name\u2019s popularity around the turn of the 21st century was an organic phenomenon, said Laura Wattenberg, the author of \u201cThe Baby Name Wizard\u201d and the founder of Namerology, a website with a focus on names. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a single prominent Emily who sparked the whole thing,\u201d Ms. Wattenberg said.
