Ethan
Masculine · “firm”
Ethan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 487,389 boys against 755 girls since 1880. See Ethan as a girl name
The book of Kings says Solomon was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and than Heman, and Calcol, and Darda. It is a boast that only lands if you know who those four men were. Nobody does. Four of the most famous sages in the ancient world, name-checked once, and the record loses every one of them.
How old is the name Ethan?
Ethan first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Ethan alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 479,000 people named Ethan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ethan most popular?
Ethan peaked in 2009, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #24, 22 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Ethan appears on these lists:
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- The top-10 club: every name that made it
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From eitan to Ethan
The story of Ethan
Ethan appears rarely and always with weight. The verse in Kings uses him as a measure of wisdom; Psalm 89 is headed as his; and a musician of the name is listed among those David appointed. Then he vanishes, along with the other three sages, into a gap the text assumes its readers can fill. The name reached English with the Reformation, when Protestant families went to the Hebrew scriptures for names nobody Catholic was using, and it took particularly well in New England — which is why the best-known American Ethan is a Vermont militia commander of the 1770s. It went quiet for most of the twentieth century and came back very hard at the end of it.
Meaning
firm, enduring
Hebrew eitan, firm, permanent, enduring. It is still an ordinary Hebrew adjective: a nachal eitan is a stream that runs all year rather than drying up in summer, and that image — water that does not fail — is the concrete sense behind the name.
Cultural footprint
Ethan Hawke (b. 1970) — Four-time Oscar nominee (Boyhood, Training Day)
Ethan Allen (b. 1738) — Revolutionary War hero of the Green Mountain Boys
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- eitan
- Ethan
Related forms: Eitan · Ethan · Ethan
Pronouncing Ethan
EE-thun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the th of think. Hebrew Eitan puts the weight at the end, ay-TAHN, and has no th at all — the Hebrew letter is a plain t.
Nicknames for Ethan
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 200222,113 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 2009
- Change vs 2022
- −5.5%7,852 in 2025, from 8,312
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.
Ethan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eitan in Hebrew — same name
- Ethan in French — same name
- Ethan in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Statistics Canada, INSEE, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Ethans among us
people named Ethan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 218 born in 2025 was named Ethan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Christopher test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ethan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christopher climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christopher's path sketches the road Ethan is walking now.
Ethan is coming down from a big peak (#2 in 2009). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ethan is headed
Ethan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ethan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ethan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning that is still an everyday adjective in the language.
- Two syllables and a spelling nobody has to be told.
- It works unchanged in English, French, Spanish and Hebrew.
- The image behind the meaning — water that does not run out — is concrete and easy to tell a child.
- It has been among the most given names in the country for two decades, so it carries no signal.
- It resists shortening, which suits some families and frustrates others.
- The very few girls given this spelling will be read as boys on every form.
- The th is not in the Hebrew, so relatives who use the original will say a noticeably different name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ethan
Masculine · #24 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ethans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 479,000 people named Ethan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ethan in 2025?
- Ethan ranks #24 among US boy names in 2025, with 7,852 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Ethan?
- About 1 in every 218 US boys born in 2025 was named Ethan — 7,852 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ethan with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 9 classrooms will have a child named Ethan.
Ranked beside Ethan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#23 · Julian#25 · Santiago#26 · Daniel#22 · Michael#21 · Cooper#27 · Ezra#20 · Asher#28
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ethan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ethan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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