Ernie
Ernie is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 14 births. Its best rank was 305th, in 1945.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 140.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 1959450 births
- Best rank
- #305in 1945
- Since 1880
- 17,215people given the name
The story in the numbers
16,501 boys have been named Ernie in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1959, with 450 births.
The name has all but left use: 14 births in 2024, against 450 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1957, and the 1950s alone account for 20%. It has spent 102 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 714 girls have also been given it, 4.1% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Ernie | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 70 | |
| 1890s | 81 | |
| 1900s | 128 | |
| 1910s | 476 | |
| 1920s | 927 | |
| 1930s | 1,368 | |
| 1940s | 2,838 | |
| 1950s | 3,380 | |
| 1960s | 3,116 | |
| 1970s | 1,541 | |
| 1980s | 1,033 | |
| 1990s | 719 | |
| 2000s | 476 | |
| 2010s | 249 | |
| 2020s | 99 |
In 1959, its biggest year
Ernie was the 370th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1959 were Michael, David, James, John and Robert. See all of 1959.
Names that rose and fell with Ernie
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Stuartpeak 1960
- Dwightpeak 1953
- Nealpeak 1959
- Karlpeak 1960
- Randlepeak 1954
- Allenpeak 1951
- Bartonpeak 1960
- Philippeak 1953
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.