How Many People Are Named Earnest?
people named Earnest are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 16,481 people in the US has this name
Based on 59,115 babies named Earnest in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
π Rare
Peak Year
1,159 births
Trend
Stable (last 10 years)
π Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Variant of ERNEST influenced by the spelling of the English word earnest.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Earnest in English. Counting Earnest and these spellings together, about 133,071 people alive in the US have the name.
β§ Gender Distribution
Of the babies given the name Earnest, 1.6% were girls and 98.4% were boys.
π₯ Age Distribution
The average person named Earnest alive today is about 62 years old, and 61% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 51 and 76 in 2025.
π Popularity Over Time
Earnest first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1926, to 1,159 babies. In 2025, 25 babies got the name.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
π Rank History
Earnest has never been one of the 100 most popular boys' names. Its best rank was #106, in 1900. In 2025 it ranked #4,163.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #4,163 |
| Best rank | #106 (1900) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #150 in the 1920s |
π State-Wise Distribution
People named Earnest alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Earnest were born in Texas than in any other state: about 2,104 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Earnest was given 5.5 times as often in Mississippi, 4.1 times in Alabama and 3.6 times in Arkansas.
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