Eric
A masculine Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse meaning "ever ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 815,564 living Americans carry the first name Eric. It sits at #251 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Eric today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eric births was 1970 (23,721 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eric. 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 Eric with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Eric is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,293 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Eric have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
816K
~ 1 in 420 Americans
Peak year
1970
23,721 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#251
Tracked since 1880
Census
Eric in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 767,093 people with the first name Eric, which placed it at #41 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
#41
National first-name rank
People counted
767K
767,093 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
254.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eric
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eric is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Eric 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 Eric at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.7% · 511,561
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 107,309
- Black or African American12.0% · 91,952
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 30,949
- Two or more races2.8% · 21,278
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4,044
Gender
Gender distribution for Eric
Out of the 891,929 babies given the name Eric since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Eric as a male name
- Ranked #251 in 2024
- 1,402 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (23,573 births)
Eric as a female name
- Ranked #17,055 in 2016
- 5 female births in 2016
- Peak: 1988 (165 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eric appears almost entirely male. Of the 767,096 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Eric: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eric from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 212,838 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
Eric 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 Eric during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Erics live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Eric, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17,394 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eric
The name Eric has its origins in the Old Norse language, spoken by the Vikings and other Scandinavian people during the medieval period. It is derived from the Old Norse name "Eiríkr," which is composed of the elements "ei," meaning "ever" or "eternal," and "rik," meaning "ruler" or "mighty." Thus, Eric can be interpreted as "eternal ruler" or "ever mighty."
In Old Norse mythology, Eric was the name of a legendary Swedish king who was said to have been a powerful and successful ruler. The name was likely given to children with the hope that they would grow up to be strong and capable leaders like the mythical king.
The earliest recorded use of the name Eric dates back to the 9th century, when it was borne by several Scandinavian rulers and nobles, including Eric the Victorious, a Danish king who reigned from 867 to 886. Another notable bearer of the name was Eric the Red, the famous Icelandic explorer who is credited with establishing the first European settlement in Greenland around 985.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Eric remained popular among the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples, and it was later adopted in other parts of Europe as well. Some notable historical figures named Eric include Eric IX of Sweden (1120-1160), a king known for his efforts to promote Christianity in his realm, and Eric XIV of Sweden (1533-1577), who was deposed and eventually executed after a tumultuous reign.
In more recent history, Eric has been the name of several influential individuals, including Eric the Red (circa 950-circa 1003), the Icelandic explorer mentioned earlier; Eric Erickson (1902-1994), the renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst; Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), the British Marxist historian; Eric Clapton (born 1945), the legendary British rock musician; and Eric Cantona (born 1966), the French football player and actor.
While the name Eric has its roots in Old Norse and Scandinavian cultures, it has since become widely used and recognized across various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its strong and meaningful origin, as well as its association with notable historical figures and modern-day icons.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Eric
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Eric Bana
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Eric Blakeney
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Eric Bress
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Eric Cantor
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Eric Chavez
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Eric Close
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Eric Darnell
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Eric Desjardins
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Eric Esch
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Eric Fleming
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Eric Gagne
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Eric Goldberg
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Eric Hicks
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Eric Idle
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Eric Johnson
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Eric Karson
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Eric Leighton
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Eric Lindros
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Eric Mccormack
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Eric Meza
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Eric Milton
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Eric Moulds
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Eric Roberts
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Eric Rohmer
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Eric Schaeffer
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Eric Snow
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Eric Staal
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Eric Stoltz
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Eric Young
People
Eric + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eric as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Eric: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eric?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 815,564 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eric 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 420 US residents.
Is Eric a common name?
We classify Eric as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 891,929 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eric most popular?
The single biggest year for Eric was 1970, when 23,721 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eric is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eric in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 767,093 people with the name Eric, or 253.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41 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 Eric 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 Eric?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eric appears almost entirely male. Of the 767,096 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Eric?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eric is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Eric most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eric in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.7% (511,561 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 Eric in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eric a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Eric 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 Eric still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eric 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 Eric 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 people have Eric as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Eric on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.