Ernakh or Ernac was the 3rd son of Attila. After Attila's death in 453

453

Year 453 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Opilio and Vincomalus...

 AD, his empire crumbled and its remains were ruled by his three sons. Ernakh is considered to have succeeded Dengizich king of Akatziroi

Akatziroi

One of the nations in the Hunnish tribal confederacy. The Akatziroi were ruled by a king called Karadach or Karidachus, and appear in the account of Priscus...

 and reigned from 469 AD to 503

503

Year 503 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Volusianus and Dixicrates...

 AD over the Huns who roamed a substantial part of the former empire and inhabited the lands of modern Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Ernakh managed to assert himself as ruler of also the Bulgar

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 Onogurs who had come upon the Acatzir Huns in 463 during the preceding reign of his brother Dengizich

Dengizich

Dengizich , ruler of the Akatziroi, was a son of Attila. The other forms of his name are Denzic and Dintzic...

.

According to the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans

Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans

The Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans is a short manuscript containing the names of some early Bulgar rulers, their clans, the year of their ascending to the throne according to the cyclic Bulgar calendar and the length of their rule, including the times of joint rule and civil war...

, a ruler named Irnik was a leader of the Bulgars for 150 years and his reign began approximately in 453 AD. Some historians consider Ernakh and Irnik to have been the same person.

According to Procopius

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...

 and the Utigur khan Sandilch

Sandilch

Sandilch , 555, was promoted by the Gokturks in 569 as Khan of the Utigur Bulgars in Patria Onoguria and an ally to the Byzantines who through him played the Utigurs off against their Pseudo-Avar controlled relatives....

, Ernakh had two sons:

"one called Utigur and another called Kutrigur. After their father's death they shared the power and gave their names to the subjected peoples, so that even nowadays some of them are called Utigurs and the others - Kutrigurs."

In 486 and 488 Ernakh led the Bulgars as allies of Byzantium (and later as allies of the Gepids) against the Goths of Theodoric

Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...

, but was defeated.

Irnik Point

Irnik Point

Irnik Point is the ice-free point on the northwest coast of Snow Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica situated 3.5 km southwest of Cape Timblón, 2 km southwest of Mezdra Point, and 7.4 km northeast of Byewater Point....

 on Snow Island

Snow Island (South Shetland Islands)

Snow Island or Isla Nevada is a completely ice-covered island, in size, lying southwest of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. Surface area...

 in the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, Antarctica is named after Irnik (Ernakh).