Ernest

English from German

"serious, resolute"

Ernest Origin and Meaning

The name Ernest is a boy's name of English origin meaning "serious, resolute".

Ernest is one of those sober, so-far-out-they're-beginning-to-be-reconsidered Great Uncle names. Ernest recently received a big style boost when Britain's Princess Eugenie chose it for her second son.

Ernest was a Top 40 name from 1880 to 1926, and despite trending downward from there, hung onto the Top 1000 until 2019. But we may see the rise of Ernest again before long.

Ernest is probably the only name a whole play was based on—Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest—in which one character says, "There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest."

The most famous bearer of the name is novelist Ernest Hemingway—unless you want to count Bert's friend Ernie.

Changing the spelling to Earnest makes it a male virtue name.

Ernest Rank in US Top 1000

# 978 in the US

Ernest Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 356 on Nameberry

Ernest Popularity

• 978 US 2018
• 356 Nameberry 2024
• 41 Unique 2023
• 306 England 2021
• 116 Poland 2020

20 Names Similar to Ernest

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Ernest.

• Edgar
• Albert
• Alfred
• Clarence
• Eugene
• Earl
• Wilfred
• Leopold
• Bernard
• Ralph
• Harold
• Edmund
• Hector
• Irving
• Walter
• Franklin
• Leonard
• Frederick
• Francis
• Howard

Famous People Named Ernest

• Saint Ernest German abbot of Zwiefalten
• Ernest Augustus King of Hanover; son of George III of the U.K.
• Ernest Miller Hemingway American novelist (he said himself that he hated the name because of the connection to the play The Importance of Being Earnest)
• Ernest I (born Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig Herzog) Duke of Saxe,Coburg and Gotha; father of Britain's Prince Albert
• Ernest II (born Ernst August Karl Johann Leopold Alexander Eduard) Duke of Saxe,Coburg and Gotha; brother of Prince Albert
• Ernest Borgnine (born Ermes Effron Borgnino) American actor
• Ernest Rutherford New Zealand,born physicist and Nobel laureate
• Ernest Henry Shackleton English Antarctic explorer
• Amedee Ernest Chausson, French composer
• Ernest "Ernie" Banks American baseball player
• Ernest Jennings Ford aka Tennessee Ernie Ford American country music singer
• Ernest Edward "Ernie" Kovacs American actor/comedian
• Ernest Dale Tubb American country music singer
• Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton Irish physicist and Nobel laureate
• Ernest Rupert Atholl Deakin brother of singer Louis Tomlinson

Ernest in Pop Culture

• Ernest P Worrell main character in the Ernest film series
• Ernest a main character in comic strip "Frank and Ernest" by Bob Thaves
• Ernest T. Bass character on TV's The Andy Griffith Show
• Ernest Denouement character in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Ernest LeClerc character on British TV series 'Allo 'Allo!
• Ernest B. Raykes character in Pixar's Cars
• Ernest Baldwin character in the video game Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams
• Ernest Amano character from "Ace Attorney"
• Max Ernest, character in the "Secret" book series
• Ernest Perriclof character in Alexandra Adornetto's The Strangest Adventures series
• Ernest name adopted by Jack Worthing (whose real name [spoiler] is actually Ernest) and Algernon Montcrieff in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest