Ernesto
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Germanic. See f}Ermest in main dictionary
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɛrnɛsto/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ernesto is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country, where it is the 81st most common given name.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 433(inferred from the name graph)
- ARArgentina≈1 in 563
- SVEl Salvador≈1 in 733
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Ernesto itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Philippines (inferred from the name graph)
- #482 (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 457 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 433 (inferred from the name graph)
≈250,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Germanic. See f}Ermest in main dictionary.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Ernesto, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ernesto counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PH Philippines | #81 | ≈250,000 est. | ≈1 in 433 | — | Ernesto | 112 |
| US United States | #828 | 114,307as Ernest | 1 in 2.9K | 114K | Ernesto | 457 |
| AR Argentina | #118 | ≈81,000 est. | ≈1 in 563 | 178 | Ernesto | 151 |
| PE Peru | #112 | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 915 | — | Ernesto | 125 |
| VE Venezuela | #78 | ≈28,000 est. | ≈1 in 1K | — | Ernesto | 111 |
| ES Spain | #189 | 18,865 | 1 in 2.7K | 19K | Ernesto | 194 |
| SV El Salvador | #12 | ≈8,800 est. | ≈1 in 733 | — | Ernesto | 105 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Ernesto is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Spanish, Germánico: Ernust, 'lucha, firmeza, fortaleza', luego 'resoluto, serio'.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
In Italian, Dal tedesco moderno Ernst; anticamente Ernost, forse da radice ar- 'aquila'.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, Yclla forma tedesca niodernu Rrnst pure equivalente a1 latino Severus; m a la piu antica ilruust seconilo alcuni autori deriverebhe dalla rudice ar = :quila. Cfr. Srnnldo, LZrnolfo2 ecc. S. Eroesto. I ? gciiiiaio. <.'opi. Ernesti. Xesti (anche = Oiiesti).
as a nameNomi e Cognomi: Saggio di ricerche etimologiche e storiche
In Italian, forma italiana de Ernestus.
as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos
In French, Forme italienne/espagnole d’Ernest, germanique ernst « sérieux, ferme ».
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Ernesto Teodoro Monetab. 1833ITItalian journalist, revolutionary soldier and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1833–1918)
- Che Guevarab. 1928ARnot in their usual nameArgentine Marxist revolutionary (1928–1967)
- Ernesto Gastaldib. 1934ITItalian screenwriter
- Ernesto Laclaub. 1935ARArgentine philosopher and political theorist (1935-2014)
- Zedillob. 1951MXnot in their usual name61st President of Mexico
- Steven Bauerb. 1956CUnot in their usual nameEuro-Indigenous Cuban-American character actor, producer, musician, and entrepreneur
- Ernesto Valverdeb. 1964ESSpanish association football player and manager
- Miguel Herrerab. 1968MXnot in their usual nameMexican association football player and manager (born 1968)
- Jimmy Moralesb. 1969GTnot in their usual nameComedian and former President of Guatemala
- Nicolás Maduro Guerrab. 1990VEnot in their usual nameVenezuelan politician and son of Nicolás Maduro
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 104 sources across 50 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 68K | #747 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 19K | #154 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 19K | #356 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 272 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 112 | #747 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present) | 2024 | 79 | #849 |
| AR Argentina | datos.gob.ar — nombres.datos.gob.ar per-name lookup (1922–2015) | 2015 | 33 | — |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — births 1922–2015 (Kaggle mirror) | 2015 | 33 | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Ernesto mean, and where does it come from?
- Germanic. See f}Ermest in main dictionary. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What are other forms of the name Ernesto?
- In the etymology graph, Ernest, Ernestina and Ernie are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Ernesto?
- A machine transcription gives /ɛrnɛsto/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- Is Ernesto a male or female name?
- Ernesto is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Ernesto have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 252 thousand people named Ernesto in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ernesto.
- How common is the name Ernesto?
- In Spain, the national register counted 18,865 people named Ernesto, about 1 in 2.7 thousand residents.
- How common is Ernesto compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Ernesto is the 81st most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ernesto?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ernestoThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ernesto” — the 81st most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.