Ernesto

What Ernesto means

Spanish form of Ernest, meaning “vigor, strife”

a male given name from German, equivalent to English Ernest || Borrowed in the 18th century from Ernst, a medieval royal name in Germany, from Old High German ernust (“vigor, strife”), only remotely related to modern German ernst or English earnest.

Source: Wiktionary, “Ernesto” (revision 93487143) and “Ernest” (revision 93817584), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Ernesto?

US: Falling: down from #638 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #3004 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2002, when 853 boys got the name (#324 that year). First in the US records in 1889.

How common

• About 1 in 6,280 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 67,984 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in NM (0.77 per 1,000 boys), AZ (0.61 per 1,000 boys), NV (0.53 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Ernesto is #878 in the US and #4275 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Ernesto were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

Other spellings

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Earnest25 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Ernesto

Boys

• Jose#95Same root as Joseph, meaning “(God) shall add”^*
• Ricardo#380Same root as Richard, meaning “king, ruler + hard, brave”^*
• Raul#634Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 2000, with 1,519 babies; 440 in 2025
• Jorge#322Same root as George, meaning “farmer, earth worker”^*
• Juan#159Spanish, meaning “Yahweh is gracious”^*
• Jaime#657Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1980, with 1,462 babies; 420 in 2025

For a sister

• Alejandra#604Same root as Alexandra, meaning “to defend + man”^*
• Andrea#235Feminine form of Andreas, meaning “manly”^*
• Angelica#707Italian, meaning “angelic”^*
• Angel#546Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 2002, with 3,100 babies; 551 in 2025
• Bianca#500Form of Blanche, meaning “white”^*
• Ana#245Editor’s note Down from #211 in 2015 to #245 in 2025 in the US

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Spanish & Italian, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Ernesto’s. Rank is US 2025.