Eirik
Eirik was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,433 among boys’ names; 362 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Eirik by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Eirik mean?
Wiktionary, Norwegian Bokmål section
Eirik is “a male given name from Old Norse Eiríkr, equivalent to English Eric” Its etymology gives the senses “male given name” (Eiríkr) and “sole ruler” (*Aina-rīkijaʀ) and “everlasting ruler” (*Aiwa-rīkijaʀ).
Inherited from Old Norse Eiríkr (“male given name”), from Proto-Norse *Aina-rīkijaʀ (“sole ruler”) or *Aiwa-rīkijaʀ (“everlasting ruler”). In the first and usual Norwegian interpretation, the first element is from *ainaz (“one, alone, unique”); an alternative connects it with *aiwaz (“age, eternity”). The second element is from *rīkijaz (“kingly, powerful, rich; ruler”). The spelling preserves the diphthong of Old Norse Eiríkr, unlike the monophthongized form Erik. Compare Norwegian Nynorsk Eirik, Icelandic Eiríkur, Faroese Eirikur, Danish Erik, Swedish Erik, English Eric and German Erich.
/ˈæɪ.rɪk/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Norwegian Bokmål section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Eirik?
#8,433 among boys’ names, 2025
Eirik fell from #6,426 in 2015 to #8,433 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 6.8 to 5.3 per million.
17 babies in 2017, the peak
Eirik peaked in 2017, when 17 boys were given it, #5,347 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 53% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,433 | 5.3 |
| 2024 | 15 | #5,981 | 8.7 |
| 2023 | 5 | #12,747 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 16 | #5,688 | 9.2 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,233 | 6.3 |
| 2020 | 10 | #7,666 | 5.8 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,029 | 3.9 |
| 2018 | 8 | #9,055 | 4.4 |
| 2017 | 17 | #5,347 | 9.2 |
| 2016 | 13 | #6,449 | 6.9 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #6,426 | 6.8 |
| 2014 | 7 | #9,933 | 3.6 |
| 2013 | 9 | #8,296 | 4.8 |
| 2012 | 6 | #11,190 | 3.2 |
| 2011 | 5 | #12,823 | 2.6 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,815 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 11 | #7,343 | 5.5 |
| 2008 | 5 | #13,093 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 5 | #12,890 | 2.4 |
| 2006 | 5 | #12,573 | 2.4 |
| 2004 | 10 | #7,124 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 7 | #8,561 | 3.6 |
| 2000 | 5 | #10,880 | 2.5 |
| 1998 | 10 | #5,951 | 5.2 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,517 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,676 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 5 | #8,259 | 2.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,284 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 6 | #5,791 | 3.3 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,078 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,187 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,701 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,093 | 3.9 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,140 | 3.0 |
| 1975 | 6 | #4,990 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,304 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,671 | 3.8 |
| 1972 | 12 | #2,871 | 7.4 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,450 | 5.1 |
| 1968 | 9 | #2,966 | 5.2 |
| 1967 | 7 | #3,348 | 4.0 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,062 | 4.5 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,058 | 2.7 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,751 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Eirik a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Eirik has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Eirik: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Eirik, and how old are they?
An estimated 346 Americans named Eirik and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 44. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 367 people named Eirik (1 woman or girl, 366 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 287 born in the U.S. The Census count is 28% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 1,134,938 babies since 1880, Eirik is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 9 of their 2,699 babies (<1%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Eirik
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Eirik and names like it
- Compare Eirik and EricBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sEirik peaked in 2017.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Eirik since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Eirik.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Eirik alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.