Ernest

Ernest is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It derives from the German name Ernst, which in turn comes from an element meaning serious, severe, or earnest; the English word earnest is cognate with this meaning. The name spread to English-speaking countries in the Middle Ages and gained particular popularity in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often carrying associations of reliability and steadfastness.

Notable people named Ernest include several prominent figures across various fields. Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist and Nobel laureate. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) was a New Zealand-born physicist who proposed the nuclear model of the atom. Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer known for Antarctic expeditions. Ernest Borgnine (1917–2012) was an American actor. Ernest Walton (1903–1993) was an Irish physicist who helped co-create the first artificial nuclear disintegration, and Ernest Lawrence (1901–1958) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the cyclotron.

In culture and language, the name is associated with the 19th-century play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, which uses the homophonic pun on the concept of being earnest. Diminutives such as Ernie are common in English, while variants exist in other languages, including Ernst in German and Ernestas or Ernestas in some Baltic or Baltic-adjacent languages. A feminine form, Ernestine, is used in various contexts.

As a surname, Ernest occurs less frequently but is occasionally found. Today, Ernest remains a traditional given name in many English-speaking countries, though it is less widely used than in its peak decades of the past.