Aric
A masculine name of undetermined origin, possibly from an Old Germanic word meaning "eternal ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 7,253 living Americans carry the first name Aric. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Aric today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aric births was 1977 (265 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aric. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Aric with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.3K
~ 1 in 47,257 Americans
Peak year
1977
265 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,427
Tracked since 1946
Census
Aric in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,397 people with the first name Aric, which placed it at #3,317 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,317
National first-name rank
People counted
6.4K
6,397 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aric
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aric is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (10.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Aric described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Aric at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.3% · 4,371
- Black or African American11.5% · 734
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 657
- Two or more races5.3% · 338
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 240
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 57
Gender
Gender distribution for Aric
Out of the 7,605 babies given the name Aric since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Aric as a male name
- Ranked #4,427 in 2024
- 23 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (265 births)
Aric as a female name
- Ranked #9,865 in 1978
- 5 female births in 1978
- Peak: 1978 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aric appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,398 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Aric: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aric from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,969 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aric by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Aric during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arics live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Aric, while Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 121 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aric
The name Aric is a variant of the Old Norse name Eric, which is derived from the Old Norse word "eiríkr." This word is a combination of two elements: "ai" meaning "eternal" and "rik" meaning "ruler" or "powerful." The name Aric, therefore, carries the meaning of "eternal ruler" or "ever-powerful."
The name Eric was widespread among the Vikings and other Scandinavian peoples during the Middle Ages. It is believed to have originated in ancient Norway and spread throughout the Norse-populated regions of Europe, including parts of modern-day Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Aric can be found in the medieval Icelandic sagas, which were written between the 12th and 14th centuries. These sagas often featured characters with names derived from Old Norse, including Aric.
Several notable historical figures have borne the name Aric or its variants. One of the most famous was Aric the Red (c. 950-c. 1003), a Norse explorer who is credited with founding the first European settlement in Greenland. Another notable figure was Aric Bloodaxe (c. 885-954), a Viking king who ruled parts of modern-day Norway and England in the 10th century.
In the medieval period, the name Aric also appeared in various European records and chronicles. For example, Aric of Auxerre (c. 841-876) was a Frankish scholar and theologian who played a significant role in the Carolingian Renaissance.
Moving forward in history, Aric Dahlberg (1625-1703) was a Swedish military engineer and fortification expert who served under King Charles XI. Aric Newburgh (1722-1806) was a British military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later became a member of Parliament.
While the name Aric is less common today, it has been borne by several notable individuals in more recent times. These include Aric Almirola (born 1984), an American professional stock car racing driver, and Aric Gilmore (born 1955), an American businessman and philanthropist.
People
Aric + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aric as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Aric: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aric?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,253 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aric going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 47,257 US residents.
Is Aric a common name?
We classify Aric as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,605 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aric most popular?
The single biggest year for Aric was 1977, when 265 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aric is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aric in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,397 people with the name Aric, or 2.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,317 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Aric in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Aric?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aric appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,398 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Aric?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aric is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (10.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Aric most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aric in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.3% (4,371 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Aric in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aric a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Aric in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Aric still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aric in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Aric can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Aric?
See how many people share the name Aric on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.