Boy · Germanic
Ernest
Say it: UR-nist
Meaning
From Germanic ernust 'seriousness, vigour'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Brought to England by the Hanoverians and popular around 1900.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 303,319 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1880, about 1 in 180 boys
- 208 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Ernie
| German | Ernst |
|---|---|
| French | Ernest |
| Italian | Ernesto |
| Spanish | Ernesto |
| Dutch | Ernst |
Famous bearers
- Ernest Hemingway, novelist
- Ernest Rutherford, physicist
- Ernest Shackleton, explorer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.