Ernest

The name Ernest is a boy's name of English origin meaning "serious, resolute". Ernest is one of those sober, so-far-out-they're-beginning-to-be-reconsidered Great Uncle names. It was a Top 40 name from 1880 to 1926, and has never been completely off the Social Security list. Ernest is probably the only name a whole play was based on—Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest—in which one character says, "There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest." The most famous bearer of the name is novelist Ernest Hemingway—unless you want to count Bert's friend Ernie. Changing the spelling to Earnest makes it a male virtue name.