Ethan is the name of one of those generational chart climbers nobody quite predicted. It sat outside the SSA top 200 in 1980. By 2002 it was top 10. The 2004 peak corresponds almost exactly with the cohort of parents who grew up watching Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible (1996) — but the climb started before that film came out.
The Old Testament name nobody talks about
Ethan comes from the Hebrew Eitan, meaning "strong, firm, enduring." In the Hebrew Bible, Ethan the Ezrahite is credited as the author of Psalm 89 — a minor figure compared to Elijah or Samuel, which is partly why the name stayed dormant for so long. Most American parents picking Ethan today don't have the biblical association in mind.
The cultural anchor for many parents was Ethan Allen, the Revolutionary War leader who captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. Ethan Allen Furniture (founded 1932) borrowed the name and gave it a 20th-century commercial association that probably helped keep it familiar even when SSA usage was low.
What the climb actually tracked
Ethan's rise from #200s in 1980 to top 10 in the early 2000s makes more sense in the context of the broader "-an/-en ending" wave: Aiden, Jayden, Brayden, Logan, Mason. Ethan was the proto-name in that cohort — older, more established, less rhyme-engineered. Parents who liked the sound of Aiden but wanted something with deeper roots picked Ethan.
The 2004 peak (over 25,000 births in a single year) is the second-highest single-year cohort of any -an/-en boys' name in SSA history. Only Ryan exceeded it. Common pairings on naming forums: Ethan James, Ethan Michael, Ethan Cole.
The counter-reading: is Ethan past peak?
The standard read is that Ethan is gracefully aging out of fashion alongside Aiden and Jayden. Birth counts have drifted from the 25,000-per-year peak in 2004 to about 8,000 in 2024 — a substantial decline. The rank has held in the top 20, but only because every other name in that cohort has fallen faster.
The interesting question for parents in 2025 isn't whether Ethan is still popular (it is), but what generational signal the name now sends. An Ethan born today will likely be one of the youngest in his name's main cohort — most fellow Ethans are now teens or young adults. That's a different positioning from a name like Asher or Levi, where the bulk of the cohort is currently under 10. Whether that matters depends on whether the family wants the name to feel "of his moment" or "slightly mature for his moment."