Ernest vs Lucas

How Ernest and Lucas compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Ernest (boys) vs Lucas (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric	Ernest	Lucas
Peak year (most US births)	1921 — 5,697 boys	2017 — 13,029 boys
Peak rank	#38	#11
Most recent rank (2018)	#965 (215 births)	#10 (10,219 births)
Total US births since 1880	229,515	290,284
Last 10 years (2009–2018)	2,269	116,799

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Lucas reached 13,029 US births in 2017 — 7,332 more than Ernest's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year	New leader	Ernest births	Lucas births
1980	Lucas	0	3,081

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Ernest — top 5 states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	South Carolina	#559	21
2	Minnesota	#692	49
3	Virginia	#725	26
4	Maryland	#733	36
5	Colorado	#736	18

Lucas — top 5 states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Florida	#3	8,933
2	New York	#4	8,253
3	New Jersey	#4	3,983
4	Maryland	#6	2,113
5	Connecticut	#6	1,403

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →