The gold statuette awarded at the Emmy Awards is nicknamed the Emmy.
The statuette depicts a winged woman holding an atom. Television engineer Louis McManus designed it in 1948, using his wife, Helene, as the model. The wings symbolize the muse of art, while the atom represents the science and technology underlying television.
The name has an unusual technical origin. Academy founder Syd Cassyd initially suggested “Ike,” referring to the iconoscope tube used in early television cameras. Members rejected it partly because “Ike” was also strongly associated with Dwight D. Eisenhower. Harry Lubcke then proposed “Immy,” a nickname for the image orthicon camera tube.
“Immy” was later changed to the more feminine “Emmy,” matching the statuette’s female figure. The Emmy name is therefore not a reference to the Grammy, Tony, or Oscar awards. Those names belong to separate honors for music, theater, and film.