Arnette
A feminine French diminutive name, possibly derived from the Germanic root "Arn" meaning eagle.
Name Census estimates that about 618 living Americans carry the first name Arnette. It is a predominantly female name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Arnette today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arnette births was 1959 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arnette. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Arnette is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Arnettes were born before 1970.
People living today
618
~ 1 in 554,619 Americans
Peak year
1959
49 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1960 SSA rank
#4,067
Tracked since 1907
Census
Arnette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 852 people with the first name Arnette, which placed it at #13,982 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,982
National first-name rank
People counted
852
852 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arnette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnette is Black at 56.1%. The next largest groups are White (32.4%) and Hispanic (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arnette described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arnette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.1% · 478
- White32.4% · 276
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 31
- Two or more races2.6% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Arnette
Arnette leans heavily female at 97.0% of total registrations, but 33 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Arnette as a male name
- Ranked #4,067 in 1960
- 5 male births in 1960
- Peak: 1952 (6 births)
Arnette as a female name
- Ranked #14,350 in 1998
- 5 female births in 1998
- Peak: 1959 (44 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arnette leans strongly female. 784 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 67 male bearers (7.9%).
Popularity
Arnette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arnette from the 1900s through to the 1990s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 290 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
Arnette 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 Arnette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arnettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Florida, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Arnette, while Virginia, Texas, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arnette
The name Arnette has its origins in the medieval French language and can be traced back to the 12th century. It is a feminine diminutive form of the Old French name Arnaud, which is derived from the Germanic elements "arn" meaning "eagle" and "wald" meaning "rule" or "power." The name Arnette, therefore, carries the meaning of "little eagle ruler" or "little powerful eagle."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arnette can be found in the annals of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Gilles in southern France, where an Arnette de Montpellier is mentioned as a benefactor of the abbey in the late 12th century. It is believed that this Arnette was a noblewoman from the region of Montpellier, which was a prominent center of medieval French culture and literature.
In the 13th century, the name Arnette appeared in the literary work "Roman de la Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, one of the most influential works of medieval French literature. The character of Arnette is described as a beautiful and virtuous maiden, suggesting that the name carried positive connotations during this period.
As the name spread throughout Europe, it gained popularity in various regions and cultures. In the 14th century, an Arnette von Bocksdorf is recorded as a prominent landowner in the region of Saxony, in what is now modern-day Germany. This indicates that the name had been adopted and adapted by Germanic cultures as well.
During the Renaissance period, the name Arnette was borne by several notable figures, including Arnette de Baulieu (1480-1558), a French noblewoman and patron of the arts, and Arnette Petit (1522-1587), a French printer and publisher who played a significant role in the dissemination of Protestant literature during the Reformation.
In the 17th century, Arnette Bellingan (1610-1672) was a Dutch painter and engraver known for her portraiture and still-life works, while Arnette de Hauterive (1638-1712) was a French playwright and poet whose works were widely acclaimed in her time.
The name Arnette continued to be used throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, with Arnette Désirée Clary (1777-1860), the wife of French military leader Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, being one of the most notable bearers of the name during this period.
People
Arnette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arnette 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
Arnette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arnette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 618 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arnette 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 554,619 US residents.
Is Arnette a common name?
We classify Arnette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,088 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arnette most popular?
The single biggest year for Arnette was 1959, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arnette is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arnette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 852 people with the name Arnette, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,982 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arnette in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arnette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arnette leans strongly female. 784 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 67 male bearers (7.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arnette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnette is Black at 56.1%. The next largest groups are White (32.4%) and Hispanic (3.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arnette most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Arnette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.1% (478 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arnette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arnette a female name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Arnette in the SSA data are female. 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.
Is Arnette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arnette in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arnette can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many Americans are named Arnette?
Want to know how many people have the name Arnette? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.