Ernest
Ernest is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 200 births. Its best rank was 21st, in 1885.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 2000.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19215,697 births
- Best rank
- #21in 1885
- Since 1880
- 304,137people given the name
The story in the numbers
302,282 boys have been named Ernest in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1921, with 5,697 births — 0.52% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 200 births in 2024, against 5,697 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1939, and the 1920s alone account for 18%. It has spent 139 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 77 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,855 girls have also been given it, 0.61% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Ernest | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 6,700 | |
| 1890s | 7,877 | |
| 1900s | 8,657 | |
| 1910s | 37,134 | |
| 1920s | 53,653 | |
| 1930s | 39,346 | |
| 1940s | 41,762 | |
| 1950s | 39,679 | |
| 1960s | 26,892 | |
| 1970s | 16,756 | |
| 1980s | 11,236 | |
| 1990s | 6,054 | |
| 2000s | 3,332 | |
| 2010s | 2,211 | |
| 2020s | 993 |
In 1921, its biggest year
Ernest was the 38th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1921 were John, Robert, William, James and Charles. See all of 1921.
Names that rose and fell with Ernest
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Louispeak 1921
- Clydepeak 1920
- Elbertpeak 1920
- Dorseypeak 1916
- Walterpeak 1918
- Vernpeak 1920
- Hermanpeak 1921
- Albertpeak 1921
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.