Erna
A feminine given name of Germanic origin meaning "vigor" or "battle".
Name Census estimates that about 1,138 living Americans carry the first name Erna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Erna today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Erna births was 1916 (358 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Erna. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Erna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Erna is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ernas were born before 1966.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 301,190 Americans
Peak year
1916
358 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1921 SSA rank
#4,018
Tracked since 1880
Census
Erna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,761 people with the first name Erna, which placed it at #4,804 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
#4,804
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,761 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Erna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erna is White at 73.2%. The next largest groups are Black (10.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.4%). 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 Erna 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 Erna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.2% · 2,752
- Black or African American10.2% · 383
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.4% · 352
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 177
- Two or more races1.6% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Erna
Out of the 9,071 babies given the name Erna since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Erna as a male name
- Ranked #4,018 in 1921
- 6 male births in 1921
- Peak: 1921 (6 births)
Erna as a female name
- Ranked #14,012 in 2021
- 6 female births in 2021
- Peak: 1916 (358 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erna appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,768 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Erna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Erna from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 2,465 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Erna 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 Erna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ernas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois recorded the most babies named Erna, while South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 158 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Erna
The given name Erna has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old High German "Ernust" or "Ernu," which means "vigor" or "battle." This name can be traced back to the early medieval period, around the 8th to 11th centuries AD, when it was commonly used in various Germanic tribes and regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Erna can be found in the Codex Traditionum Corbeiensium, a medieval cartulary from the Corvey Abbey in present-day Germany, dating back to the 9th century. The name appears in several entries, indicating its usage among the local population during that time.
In the following centuries, the name Erna continued to be popular across various Germanic regions, including parts of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It also found its way into Scandinavian countries, where variations like Erna and Yrna were used.
Historically, the name Erna has been associated with several notable individuals. One such figure is Erna Berger (1900-1990), a German soprano and renowned opera singer who performed extensively in the 1920s and 1930s. Another prominent bearer of the name was Erna Sack (1898-1972), a German writer and poet known for her works exploring the experiences of women during World War II.
In the field of science, Erna Schneider Hoover (1926-2019) was an American mathematician and computer programmer who made significant contributions to the development of early computer software systems at Bell Labs.
Erna Solberg (born 1961) is a Norwegian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, becoming the second woman to hold the position in the country's history.
Erna Paris (born 1937) is a Canadian writer, novelist, and journalist, best known for her works exploring themes of human rights, genocide, and the Holocaust, including the acclaimed book "The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice."
These examples illustrate the enduring presence of the name Erna across various cultures and professions, reflecting its rich historical heritage and diverse applications throughout the centuries.
People
Erna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Erna as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Erna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Erna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,138 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Erna 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 301,190 US residents.
Is Erna a common name?
We classify Erna as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,071 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Erna most popular?
The single biggest year for Erna was 1916, when 358 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Erna is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Erna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,761 people with the name Erna, or 1.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,804 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 Erna 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 Erna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erna appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,768 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Erna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erna is White at 73.2%. The next largest groups are Black (10.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.4%). 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 Erna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Erna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.2% (2,752 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 Erna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Erna a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Erna 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 Erna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Erna 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 Erna 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 people have the name Erna?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.