Meaning and history
This name comes from the Hebrew אֵיתָן (ʾEṯan), meaning “solid, enduring, firm.” In the Old Testament, it appears as the name of a few minor figures, including Ethan the Ezrahite, the wise man traditionally regarded as the author of Psalm 89. After the Protestant Reformation, it was occasionally used as a given name in the English-speaking world and became somewhat common in America because of the fame of the revolutionary Ethan Allen (1738–1789), but it did not become widely popular until the late 20th century. It is also the name of the title character in Edith Wharton’s 1911 novel Ethan Frome, about a man in love with his wife’s cousin.
20062006: 20,522 births, rank #4
2007: 21,041 births, rank #3
2008: 20,223 births, rank #3
2009: 19,858 births, rank #2
2010: 18,020 births, rank #2
20112011: 16,702 births, rank #7
2012: 17,697 births, rank #3
2013: 16,260 births, rank #6
2014: 15,749 births, rank #6
2015: 15,103 births, rank #6
20162016: 13,855 births, rank #10
2017: 12,483 births, rank #14
2018: 11,931 births, rank #12
2019: 11,311 births, rank #11
2020: 9,556 births, rank #13
20212021: 8,863 births, rank #20
2022: 8,312 births, rank #21
2023: 7,810 births, rank #24
2024: 8,201 births, rank #19
20252025: 7,852 births, rank #24
Ethan has made a dramatic comeback. After first appearing in the US records in 1882, it fell to #996 by 1952, before climbing to #24 in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2004, with 22,210 births.