Arnett
A masculine name possibly derived from an Old English surname meaning "eagle strength".
Name Census estimates that about 632 living Americans carry the first name Arnett. It is a predominantly male name (94.5% of registrations). The average person named Arnett today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arnett births was 1951 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arnett. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
632
~ 1 in 542,333 Americans
Peak year
1951
35 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2006 SSA rank
#7,074
Tracked since 1893
Gender
Gender distribution for Arnett
Arnett leans heavily male at 94.5% of total registrations, but 75 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Arnett as a male name
- Ranked #9,653 in 2006
- 7 male births in 2006
- Peak: 1951 (35 births)
Arnett as a female name
- Ranked #7,074 in 1968
- 5 female births in 1968
- Peak: 1959 (10 births)
Popularity
Arnett: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arnett from the 1890s through to the 2000s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 250 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arnett by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arnett during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arnetts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. West Virginia, New York, Georgia recorded the most babies named Arnett, while Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arnett
The name Arnett is an English given name derived from the Old French word "arn", meaning eagle. It originated in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, and was initially used as a surname for those who either worked with eagles or lived in an area associated with these majestic birds.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arnett can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. Here, it appears as "Arnulf," a variant spelling of the same name.
In the 14th century, the name Arnett gained popularity among the English nobility and upper classes, who often chose names with French origins to reflect their status and connections to the Norman aristocracy. One notable figure from this era was Arnett de Mandeville, a English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France in the mid-1300s.
The name Arnett also has roots in biblical tradition, as it shares similarities with the Hebrew name "Arnon," which appears in the Book of Numbers and refers to a river in the region of Moab. However, there is no direct connection between the two names, and the English version is more closely tied to its French origins.
During the Renaissance period, the name Arnett experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly among the educated and artistic classes. One famous bearer of the name from this time was Arnett de Vinci, an Italian painter and sculptor who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and was a contemporary of the renowned Leonardo da Vinci.
In the 19th century, the name Arnett gained traction in the United States, likely due to the influx of English and French immigrants during this period. One notable American named Arnett was Arnett Beecher, a prominent abolitionist and women's rights activist who lived from 1811 to 1878 and was a cousin of the famous writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.
People
Arnett + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arnett as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arnett: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arnett?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 632 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arnett going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 542,333 US residents.
Is Arnett a common name?
We classify Arnett as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arnett most popular?
The single biggest year for Arnett was 1951, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arnett is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Arnett a male name?
Yes, 94.5% of people registered as Arnett in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.