Erwin
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "friend of the army".
Name Census estimates that about 8,626 living Americans carry the first name Erwin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Erwin today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Erwin births was 1922 (513 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Erwin. 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 Erwin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.6K
~ 1 in 39,735 Americans
Peak year
1922
513 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,422
Tracked since 1880
Census
Erwin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,621 people with the first name Erwin, which placed it at #2,123 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
#2,123
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
12,621 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Erwin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erwin is White at 37.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.5%). 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 Erwin 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 Erwin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.1% · 4,687
- Hispanic or Latino30.1% · 3,802
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.5% · 2,334
- Black or African American11.5% · 1,450
- Two or more races1.4% · 181
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 167
Gender
Gender distribution for Erwin
Out of the 21,202 babies given the name Erwin since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Erwin as a male name
- Ranked #2,422 in 2024
- 57 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (512 births)
Erwin as a female name
- Ranked #9,445 in 1981
- 6 female births in 1981
- Peak: 1917 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erwin appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,624 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Erwin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Erwin from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 4,502 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Erwin 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 Erwin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Erwins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Erwin, while Utah, District of Columbia, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 339 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Erwin
The name Erwin originated from the Old High German language, which was spoken between the 6th and 11th centuries in what is now modern-day Germany and parts of neighboring countries. The name is derived from the Germanic elements "aru," meaning "eagle," and "win," meaning "friend" or "companion." It is believed to have first emerged as a name during the medieval period, around the 9th or 10th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Erwin can be found in the Burgundian Chronicles, a historical record from the 12th century that mentions an individual named Erwin von Steinbach. He was a renowned architect and stonemason who is credited with overseeing the construction of the famous Strasbourg Cathedral in present-day France, which began in 1277.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the name Erwin remained relatively uncommon but was used across various regions of central and western Europe. In the 16th century, the German philosopher and mathematician Erwin Panofsky was born (1892-1968), known for his influential work in the field of art history and iconology.
Another notable figure with the name Erwin was the German physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), who made significant contributions to quantum theory and is best known for formulating the famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's cat. His work earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.
In the realm of literature, the name Erwin is associated with the German novelist Erwin Strittmatter (1912-1994), whose works often explored themes of rural life and social injustice in East Germany during the 20th century.
One of the most famous individuals named Erwin in recent history is Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), a German field marshal who earned the nickname "Desert Fox" for his brilliant military tactics and leadership during World War II, particularly in the North African campaign.
While the name Erwin has Germanic roots, it has also been adopted in various other cultures and languages over time, particularly in parts of Europe and North America, although its popularity has waned in more recent decades.
People
Erwin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Erwin 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
Erwin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Erwin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,626 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Erwin 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 39,735 US residents.
Is Erwin a common name?
We classify Erwin as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,202 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Erwin most popular?
The single biggest year for Erwin was 1922, when 513 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Erwin is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Erwin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,621 people with the name Erwin, or 4.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,123 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 Erwin 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 Erwin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erwin appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,624 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Erwin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erwin is White at 37.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.5%). 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 Erwin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Erwin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.1% (4,687 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 Erwin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Erwin a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Erwin 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 Erwin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Erwin 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 Erwin 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 Erwin?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Erwin at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.