Emma comes from the Old Germanic element ermen, meaning "whole" or "universal." It was originally a short form of names like Ermendrude or Ermengarde, all built on the same Germanic root. By the eleventh century it stood on its own as a popular name, carried into England by Emma of Normandy, queen consort first to Æthelred the Unready and then to Cnut the Great.
Emma sat at number one in the U.S. for five years before being overtaken by Olivia. It remains one of the most universally loved girl names in the Western world — short, balanced, classical.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Emma reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.