Ernest

name, noun

name, noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Obsolete form of earnest. alt-of, obsolete
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A male given name from the Germanic languages; popular in the 19th century.

    "GWENDOLEN. […] and my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence."

  2. 2
    A surname.

Example

More examples

"Bruno is frank and earnest with women. In Fresno, he's Frank and in Chicago, he's Ernest."

Etymology

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.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.