Erikson
Son of Erik, a masculine Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse elements "eirík" meaning "forever ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 352 living Americans carry the first name Erikson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Erikson today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Erikson births was 2023 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Erikson. 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.
People living today
352
~ 1 in 973,734 Americans
Peak year
2023
19 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,898
Tracked since 1981
Census
Erikson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 421 people with the first name Erikson, which placed it at #23,301 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
#23,301
National first-name rank
People counted
421
421 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
41.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Erikson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erikson is Hispanic at 41.6%. The next largest groups are White (38.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Erikson 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 Erikson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino41.6% · 175
- White38.0% · 160
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 35
- Black or African American7.4% · 31
- Two or more races4.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Erikson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Erikson from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 127 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Erikson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Erikson 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 Erikson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Erikson
The name Erikson has its origins in Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings and early Scandinavian people. It is a patronymic surname, meaning "son of Erik." Erik is an ancient Germanic name derived from the Old Norse words "eiríkr" and "eiríkaz," which translate to "ever ruler" or "eternal ruler."
The earliest recorded use of the name Erikson can be traced back to the Viking Age, around the 8th to 11th centuries. During this period, many Norsemen bearing the name Erikson participated in voyages of exploration and conquest across Europe and beyond. One of the most famous figures from this era is Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer credited with being the first European to set foot in North America, around 1000 AD.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Erikson was prevalent among Scandinavian nobility and rulers. One notable figure was Erik Erikson, a German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst born in 1902. He is renowned for his theory of psychosocial development and his work on identity formation.
In the literary world, Erikson has been immortalized in works such as the Icelandic sagas and the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems. The character Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland, is a prominent figure in Icelandic literature and history.
Other famous individuals bearing the name Erikson include Sven Erikson, a 17th-century Swedish explorer and cartographer, and Johan Erikson, a 19th-century Swedish botanist and plant collector. Additionally, Hans Erikson, a 16th-century Swedish naval officer and shipbuilder, made significant contributions to the development of the Swedish navy.
While the name Erikson has its roots in ancient Scandinavia, it has since spread across the world, carried by descendants of Norse settlers and immigrants. Its enduring presence serves as a testament to the rich cultural heritage of the Vikings and the lasting impact of their explorations and settlements.
People
Erikson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Erikson 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
Erikson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Erikson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 352 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Erikson 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 973,734 US residents.
Is Erikson a common name?
We classify Erikson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 357 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Erikson most popular?
The single biggest year for Erikson was 2023, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Erikson is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Erikson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 421 people with the name Erikson, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,301 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 Erikson 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 Erikson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erikson appears almost entirely male. Of the 422 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Erikson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erikson is Hispanic at 41.6%. The next largest groups are White (38.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Erikson most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Erikson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.6% (175 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 Erikson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Erikson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Erikson 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 Erikson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Erikson 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 Erikson 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 common is the name Erikson?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Erikson on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.