Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
- Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst"
- Anton Ernst (born 1975), South African film producer
- Alice Henson Ernst (1880-1980), American writer and historian
- Bastian Ernst (born 1987), German politician
- Britta Ernst (born 1961), German politician
- Cornelia Ernst (born 1956), German politician
- Cornelius Ernst, Sri Lankan theologian.
- Edzard Ernst (born 1948), German-British academic
- Emil Ernst (1889–1942), astronomer
- Ernie Ernst (1924/25–2013), American judge
- Eugen Ernst (1864–1954), German politician
- Fabian Ernst (born 1979), German soccer player
- Fedir Ernst (1891-1942), Ukrainian art historian
- Gustav Ernst (born 1944), Austrian writer
- Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812–1865), Moravian violinist and composer
- Jim Ernst (born 1942), Canadian politician
- Jimmy Ernst (1920–1984), American painter, son of Max Ernst
- Joni Ernst (born 1970), American politician
- K.S. Ernst, American visual poet
- Karl Ernst (1904–1934), German politician
- Karl Friedrich Paul Ernst, German writer (1866–1933)
- Ken Ernst (1918–1985), American comics artist
- Klaus Ernst (born 1954), German politician
- Konstantin Ernst (born 1961), Russian media manager, producer and TV host
- Max Ernst, (1891-1976), German artist and painter
- Mensen Ernst (1795–1843), Norwegian road runner and ultramarathonist and one of the first sport professionals
- Morris Ernst (1888–1976), American attorney
- Ole Ernst (1940–2013), Danish actor
- Oswald Herbert Ernst (1842–1926), American general and engineer
- Paul Ernst (American writer) (1899–1985), pulp novelist
- Richard R. Ernst (1933–2021), Swiss chemist
- Siegrid Ernst (1929–2022), German composer
- Sipke Ernst (born 1979), Dutch chess grandmaster
- Susan G. Ernst, American developmental biologist
- Tony Ernst (born 1966), Swedish journalist
- W. G. Ernst (born 1931), American geologist specializing in petrology and geochemistry
- Walter Ernst (1899–1945), German lawyer and Nazi politician
- Wolfgang Ernst, (1956), German lawyer and legal historian
Given name
| Pronunciation | /ɜːrnst,_ɛərnst/ URNST-,_-AIRNST ɛʁnst |
|---|---|
| Gender | male |
| Meaning | "serious" (person) |
| Origin | Germanic |
| Related names | Ernest, Ernie |
- Count Ernst of Lippe-Biesterfeld, regent of Lippe
- Ernst Anders (1845–1911), German painter
- Ernest August (disambiguation), multiple people
- Ernst Balz (1904–1945), German sculptor
- Ernst Stavro Blofeld, evil genius from the James Bond novels and films
- Ernst Boepple (1887–1950), German Nazi official and SS officer executed for war crimes
- Ernst Brun Jr. (born 1990), American football player
- Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945), German Jewish philosopher
- Ernst Chain (1906–1979), German-born British biochemist
- Ernst Cohen (1869–1944), Dutch Jewish chemist known for his work on the allotropy of metals
- Ernst Gebauer (1799–1865), German painter
- Ernst Gombrich (1909-2001), Austrian art historian
- Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), German biologist and illustrator
- Ernst Hammerschmidt (1928–1993), Austrian / German scholar of Ethiopia
- Ernst Happel (1925–1992), Austrian football (soccer) manager
- Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg (1851–1918), Austrian writer and traveller
- Ernst Reinhold von Hofmann (1801–1871), Russian geologist and mineralogist
- Ernst Jaakson (1905–1998), Estonian diplomat
- Ernst Jandl (1925–2000), Austrian writer, poet, and translator
- Ernst Jansz (born 1948), Dutch musician and founding member of Doe Maar
- Ernst Jünger (1895–1998), German writer
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946), Austrian-German Nazi SS police chief and war criminal, executed for war crimes
- Ernst Keil (1816–1878), German publisher
- Ernst af Klercker (1881–1955), Swedish general
- Ernst Kummer (1810–1893), German mathematician
- Ernst von der Lancken (1841–1902), Swedish Army major general
- Ernst Laraque (born 1970), Haitian judoka
- Ernst Larsen (1926–2015), Norwegian athlete
- Ernst Lauda (1859–1932), Austrian engineer
- Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), German-born Jewish film director
- Ernst Mach (1838–1916), physicist, coined the term "mach number"
- Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), evolutionary biologist, influential in the philosophy of biology
- Ernst Neizvestny (1925–2016), Russian sculptor
- Ernst Öpik (1893–1985), Estonian astronomer
- Ernst vom Rath (1909–1938), Nazi German diplomat
- Ernst Röhm (1887–1934), German military officer and co-founder of the Nazi SA (Stormtroopers)
- Ernst Rolf (1891–1932), Swedish artist
- Ernst Heinrich Roth (1877–1948), German luthier
- Ernst Ruska (1906–1988), a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986
- Ernst "Fritz" Sauckel, known as Fritz Sauckel (1894–1946), German Nazi politician, executed for war crimes
- Ernst Scholz (politician, born 1874) (1874–1932), German lawyer and politician
- Ernst Scholz (politician, born 1913) (1913–1986), German diplomat and politician
- Ernst Sieber (1927–2018), Swiss pastor, social worker, writer, politician and founder of the Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber relief organisation
- Ernst Jansen Steur (1945–2023), Dutch neurologist convicted on over twenty counts of harm
- Ernst Stimmel (1891–1978), German actor
- Ernst Stromer (1871–1952), German palaeontologist
- Ernst Thälmann (1886–1944), German communist politician and revolutionary
- Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), German Protestant theologian
- Ernst Udet (1896–1941), German flying ace
- Ernst van de Wetering (1938–2021), Dutch art historian considered to be the world's foremost expert on Rembrandt
- Ernst Zacharias (1924–2020), German musician
- Ernst Zermelo (1871–1953), set theorist
- Ernst Ziegler (1894–1974), German actor
- Ernst Zündel (1939–2017), German neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier
Pseudonym
- Ernst, pseudonym used by Matthias Jakob Schleiden