Of Latin origin.
Emilio is the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of the Roman family name Aemilius, which was later translated into Emil.
It means “rival”.
Feminine forms of the name are Emilia, Emily.
Other forms of the name are: Emelio, Emiliano, Milo.
Famous bearers are Emilio Estevez, Emilio Pucci, Emilio Estefan, Emilio Rivera, Emilio Butragueno, Emilio Delgado, Emilio Pettroruti.
Emilio Estefan is a Cuban-American musician and producer.
Emilio Estefan formed the band “Miami Sound Machine”, five years after moving from Cuba to the U.S.A.
During his amazing career, he has won 19 Grammy Awards and has developed the careers of several music stars.
In the following video you may watch a short interview of Emilio and his wife Gloria Estefan:
Additional information concerning the Ancient Roman naming system:
According to the Roman naming rules, the basic elements of Roman names were three. A “praenomen”, a “nomen”, and a “cognomen”.
A “praenomen” was the first name, indicating the personal name.
A “nomen” was the second name, indicating the ‘gens’ to which the bearer of the name belonged to. Gens, meaning the group of families sharing a common “nomen”.
“Nomen” would stand as the group of loosely connected families claiming common ancestors. “Nomen” were always patrilinear, meaning from the father.
A “cognomen” was the third name and was something like the surname. Cognomina (plural of cognomen) were usually inherited. They were rarely given to the bearer by general consensus by the prominent members of the community.
There were several types of “cognomina”, such as geographical, adoptive, occupational, etc. In very rare cases the “cognomina” could be metronymic, meaning from the mother’s “nomen”.