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Erna

Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Erna has been given to 9,071 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1916, with 358 recorded.

Babies named Erna, 2021

1 in 565,000

Erna over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Erna: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Erna means

Erna has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Erna

A separate documented entry treats Erna as a feminine form of Ernest. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

One of the source’s documented entries for Erna records a meaning of brisk, vigorous, hale.

Origin, language, and formation

Erna is used in Danish, Faroese, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Turkish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ernst and Ernesta.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,060 girls were recorded with the name Erna between 1880 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 358 in 1916; its best national rank was #256 in 1898.

In the United States, 11 boys were recorded with the name Erna between 1909 and 1921. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1921; its best national rank was #1,524 in 1909.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Erna?

Erna had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among girls only
1 in 273,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Erna sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Erna. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ernas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Erna was born before 1919 — so the typical Erna is around 106 today.

Median birth year
1919
About 106 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
27.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
798
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 27.2% of all recorded uses (2,465).

Is Erna rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1916 (358)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#256
1898

Spellings of Erna

Erna is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 13.7% against Erna's 0.14%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Erna is used

Across 1910–2025, Erna was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 2,041 girls, against 1 in 28,284 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

049 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 2,041
  2. 2South Dakota1 in 4,545
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 5,556
  4. 4Nebraska1 in 8,333
  5. 5Minnesota1 in 10,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 14,286
  7. 7Missouri1 in 14,286
  8. 8Kansas1 in 16,667

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Erna has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Erna around the world

Where Erna ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1999–1999
    #3,900
    in 1999
  • France
    1900–2025
    #4,492
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2002
    #589
    in 2002
  • South Australia
    1945–1958
    #329
    in 1958

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Erna

People whose public names include Erna, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Erna in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Erna. Linked forms have their own page here.

EnaArnaErnisaArnoštka

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Erna by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#256
1898
Peak year
1916
358 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
9,060
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,524
1909
Peak year
1921
6 that year
First recorded
1909
Last recorded
1921
All-time count
11
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Erna

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MirnaLornaAarnaArnaVernaErnestinaErnestMarnaMyrnaErnieMernaBernaCharnaAparnaLavernaKarnaMornaErnestineShternaLarnaAlvernaSharnaVirnaErnesta

Names with a curve like Erna

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Erna, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

VestaOmaIolaMaudieAlphaIoneLeoneCecilMadgeDessieLeotaFloy

Sibling names for Erna

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Erna

Top names of 1916, Erna's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1898More old lady namesGirls' names starting with EShort German Girl Names