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Ervin vs Ethan

How Ervin and Ethan 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

Ervin

Male · Hungarian

Meaning: Mariner

Ethan

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Strong

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Ervin (boys) vs Ethan (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 Ervin Ethan
Peak year (most US births) 2003 — 173 boys 2004 — 22,210 boys
Peak rank #948 #5
Most recent rank (2003) #948 (173 births) #24 (7,852 births)
Total US births since 1880 173 472,430
Last 10 years (1994–2003) 173 100,110

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Ethan reached 22,210 US births in 2004 — 22,037 more than Ervin's peak count.

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.

Ervin — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Iowa #565 16
2 Pennsylvania #585 144
3 Ohio #925 50
4 New York #1,022 37

Ethan — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Maryland #7 1,997
2 New York #7 7,360
3 California #8 15,578
4 Florida #10 6,485
5 New Jersey #11 3,198

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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 →