Arnett
Masculine · “Little Arnold”
Arnett is given to both — 1,298 boys and 75 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Arnett is a French diminutive frozen inside an English surname. English stopped using the ending to make small names centuries ago, but it had already been fixed into a whole class of family names, and Arnett belongs to that class along with Bennett, Barrett, Emmett and Garrett.
How old is the name Arnett?
Arnett first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Arnett alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 600 people named Arnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arnett most popular?
Arnett peaked in 1897, reaching #652 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Arnold to Arnett
The story of Arnett
The surname reached the front of American names in the ordinary way, and one bearer is worth knowing about. Benjamin Arnett was an African Methodist Episcopal bishop who was elected to the Ohio legislature at a time when almost no Black American held such a seat, and he used it to force through the repeal of the state's Black Laws, the statutes that had restricted where Black Ohioans could live, testify and send their children to school. He argued the case himself on the floor of the house. The name is on record for daughters as well as sons, which is what happens to any surname that moves to the front: it carries no sex of its own and nothing about it suggests one.
Meaning
Little Arnold
The base is Arnold, a Germanic name whose first element is the word for an eagle and whose second is a word for power. The -et on the end is Norman French, added to make a familiar or affectionate form, exactly as it was added to Jean to make Jeannette. English used the ending freely for two or three centuries, then stopped, but by then a great many of the resulting pet forms had hardened into surnames and could no longer be undone.
How the name formed
- Arnold
- Arnet
- Arnett
Related forms: Arnaud · Arnold · Arnaldo
Pronouncing Arnett
ar-NET
Two syllables with the stress at the back in most American families, which is the French pattern surviving in the ending. Some say AR-net, with the weight at the front, and that is the English habit reasserting itself.
Nicknames for Arnett
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1893
- Most boys named
- 195135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #652reached in 1897
- Change vs 2001
- +40.0%7 in 2006, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Arnett in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arnaud in French — related form
- Arnold in German — related form
- Arnaldo in Italian — related form
Arnetts among us
people named Arnett are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Arnett sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, firm and easy to spell, with a meaning that can be given in two words.
- It works for a child of either sex, since a surname carries no sex of its own.
- Arn and Arnie are both waiting inside it in different registers.
- The record holds this spelling for girls as well as boys, so it does not tell a form what to expect.
- It reads as a surname to almost everyone and will be entered in the wrong field more than once.
- The name is strongly dated to the end of the nineteenth century in American use.
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What they receive
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Arnett
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Arnetts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Arnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arnett in 2025?
- Arnett is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Arnett with classmates?
- Arnett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arnett? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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