NameCensus.
Rare

Arnie

Variant of Arnold, it's a masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "eagle power".

Name Census estimates that about 1,220 living Americans carry the first name Arnie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Arnie today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arnie births was 1960 (60 babies).

This page is the full Name Census profile for Arnie. 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

1.2K

~ 1 in 280,946 Americans

Peak year

1960

60 babies that year

Average age

58

years old

2024 SSA rank

#6,298

Tracked since 1887

Gender

Gender distribution for Arnie

Arnie leans heavily male at 89.8% of total registrations, but 235 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.

90% male
Male2,074 (89.8%)Female235 (10.2%)

Arnie as a male name

  • Ranked #8,346 in 2024
  • 9 male births in 2024
  • Peak: 1960 (60 births)

Arnie as a female name

  • Ranked #6,298 in 1959
  • 5 female births in 1959
  • Peak: 1918 (13 births)

Popularity

Arnie: popularity over time

The SSA tracks Arnie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 378 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.

Babies born per year

MaleFemale
0153045601900192019401960198020002020

Decades

Arnie 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 Arnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

DecadeMaleFemaleTotal
1880s5510
1890s707
1900s341751
1910s21266278
1920s19369262
1930s21550265
1940s25112263
1950s33116347
1960s3780378
1970s1540154
1980s99099
1990s69069
2000s44044
2010s39039
2020s43043

Geography

Where Arnies live

The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Minnesota, Alabama recorded the most babies named Arnie, while New York, Mississippi, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.

Origin

Meaning and history of Arnie

The name Arnie is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Arnold, which is derived from the Old German words "arn" meaning "eagle" and "wald" meaning "ruler" or "bright". The name was popular among the Franks and other Germanic tribes during the Middle Ages.

In the 8th century, there was a bishop named Arnoldus who became the patron saint of brewers, and this helped to popularize the name in Christian Europe. The name was also borne by several medieval abbots and monks, including Arnold of Soissons, a French monk who lived in the 12th century.

One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Arnie dates back to the 13th century, when an Arnie von Arnstein was mentioned in a German chronicle. In the 14th century, there was an Arnie von Windecken, a German knight and chronicler who served under Emperor Charles IV.

Over the centuries, there have been several notable individuals named Arnie or Arnold. One of the most famous was the German monk and theologian Arnold of Brescia (c. 1090-1155), who was a leading critic of the wealth and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church in the 12th century.

Another prominent figure was the Dutch philosopher and theologian Arnold Geulincx (1624-1669), who was a key figure in the development of occasionalism, a philosophical theory that denied the existence of causal relationships between events.

In the 19th century, there was the German poet and novelist Arnold Schlönbach (1817-1855), who was a member of the Young Germany literary movement. Around the same time, there was also the English writer and critic Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), who is best known for his novels set in the industrial towns of the Midlands.

In the 20th century, one of the most famous people named Arnie was the American actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947), who served as the Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Another well-known Arnie was the American golfer Arnold Palmer (1929-2016), who was one of the greatest and most popular players in the history of the sport.

People

Arnie + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with Arnie 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

Arnie: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named Arnie?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,220 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arnie 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 280,946 US residents.

Is Arnie a common name?

We classify Arnie as "Rare". It ranks above 91.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,309 babies have been registered with this name.

When was Arnie most popular?

The single biggest year for Arnie was 1960, when 60 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arnie is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

Is Arnie a male name?

Yes, 89.8% of people registered as Arnie 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.

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