Ernst

Ernst is the German form of Ernest, pared down to a single decisive syllable meaning "serious" or "resolute." It's the name of painters and physicists—Max Ernst conjuring surrealist forests, Ernst Mach measuring the speed of sound—and of countless grandfathers in old sepia photographs from Hamburg to Zurich. The consonant cluster at the close gives it an almost architectural finish, like a well-joined corner. Outside of German-speaking countries it reads as distinctly old-world, more Bauhaus than bedtime story. For a family drawn to quiet strength and a name that means exactly what it sounds like, Ernst is unpretentious and enduring.