Boy
Earnest
As a boy's name, Earnest traces back to Germanic, where it is understood to mean "Germanic ernst, serious, resolute". It has not kept pace since its 1920s peak. In the current registry, it is a name plenty of people share. Its single strongest year on record was 1926.
EtymologyVariant of Ernest
GermanicGermanic "ernst" – "serious, resolute"
Births by decade
1900s
1,907
1910s
6,909
1920s
11,013
1930s
8,853
1940s
8,844
1950s
7,445
1960s
4,589
1970s
2,995
1980s
2,000
1990s
1,053
2000s
559
2010s
297
Peaked in the 1920s · 56,464 total U.S. births since 1900