Erika
Erika was given to 213 girls in 2025, #1,109 among girls’ names; 126,212 Americans have been recorded with it since 1908 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 121,000 Americans named Erika and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 30 and 46.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Erika by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Erika mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Erika is “a female given name from the Germanic languages or Old Norse.”
Spelling variant of Erica, the feminine form of Eric, or borrowed directly from modern Scandinavia, ultimately from Old Norse Eiríkr.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Erika?
#1,109 among girls’ names, 2025
Erika fell from #725 in 2015 to #1,109 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.22 to 0.13 per 1,000.
4,593 babies in 1990, the peak
Erika peaked in 1990, when 4,593 babies were given it (4,569 girls, #74 among girls’ names). The 213 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 213 | #1,109 | 0.13 |
| 2024 | 212 | #1,143 | 0.13 |
| 2023 | 239 | #1,053 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 190 | #1,261 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 224 | #1,104 | 0.14 |
| 2020 | 248 | #1,017 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 295 | #903 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 299 | #899 | 0.18 |
| 2017 | 367 | #758 | 0.21 |
| 2016 | 383 | #745 | 0.22 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 391 | #725 | 0.22 |
| 2014 | 421 | #677 | 0.24 |
| 2013 | 460 | #611 | 0.26 |
| 2012 | 556 | #540 | 0.32 |
| 2011 | 548 | #529 | 0.31 |
| 2010 | 728 | #429 | 0.41 |
| 2009 | 862 | #374 | 0.47 |
| 2008 | 1,017 | #331 | 0.54 |
| 2007 | 1,279 | #265 | 0.67 |
| 2006 | 1,431 | #238 | 0.75 |
| 2005 | 1,617 | #216 | 0.88 |
| 2004 | 1,773 | #192 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 1,818 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 2002 | 1,960 | #167 | 1.1 |
| 2001 | 2,230 | #147 | 1.2 |
| 2000 | 2,735 | #123 | 1.5 |
| 1999 | 2,325 | #137 | 1.3 |
| 1998 | 2,672 | #124 | 1.5 |
| 1997 | 2,898 | #111 | 1.7 |
| 1996 | 3,078 | #106 | 1.8 |
| 1995 | 3,288 | #102 | 1.9 |
| 1994 | 3,584 | #90 | 2.0 |
| 1993 | 4,010 | #85 | 2.2 |
| 1992 | 4,342 | #80 | 2.4 |
| 1991 | 4,310 | #84 | 2.3 |
| 1990 | 4,569 | #74 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 4,190 | #73 | 2.3 |
| 1988 | 3,886 | #76 | 2.2 |
| 1987 | 3,994 | #75 | 2.3 |
| 1986 | 3,678 | #74 | 2.1 |
| 1985 | 3,503 | #80 | 2.0 |
| 1984 | 3,542 | #81 | 2.1 |
| 1983 | 3,548 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 1982 | 3,596 | #81 | 2.1 |
| 1981 | 3,399 | #93 | 2.0 |
| 1980 | 3,516 | #87 | 2.1 |
| 1979 | 3,316 | #91 | 2.1 |
| 1978 | 2,827 | #104 | 1.8 |
| 1977 | 2,825 | #103 | 1.8 |
| 1976 | 2,341 | #112 | 1.6 |
| 1975 | 2,256 | #128 | 1.5 |
| 1974 | 2,265 | #127 | 1.5 |
| 1973 | 2,157 | #132 | 1.5 |
| 1972 | 2,183 | #138 | 1.4 |
| 1971 | 2,199 | #146 | 1.3 |
| 1970 | 1,941 | #171 | 1.1 |
| 1969 | 1,351 | #225 | 0.80 |
| 1968 | 956 | #281 | 0.58 |
| 1967 | 815 | #304 | 0.49 |
| 1966 | 492 | #423 | 0.29 |
| 1965 | 419 | #467 | 0.24 |
| 1964 | 356 | #519 | 0.19 |
| 1963 | 304 | #563 | 0.16 |
| 1962 | 257 | #630 | 0.13 |
| 1961 | 197 | #740 | 0.10 |
| 1960 | 176 | #768 | 0.09 |
| 1959 | 171 | #782 | 0.08 |
| 1958 | 132 | #888 | 0.07 |
| 1957 | 125 | #911 | 0.06 |
| 1956 | 102 | #1,011 | 0.05 |
| 1955 | 68 | #1,223 | 0.03 |
| 1954 | 70 | #1,198 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 63 | #1,216 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 79 | #1,061 | 0.04 |
| 1951 | 46 | #1,386 | 0.03 |
| 1950 | 34 | #1,608 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 64 | #1,135 | 0.04 |
| 1948 | 54 | #1,240 | 0.03 |
| 1947 | 46 | #1,364 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 31 | #1,594 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 22 | #1,806 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 29 | #1,524 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 33 | #1,446 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 25 | #1,676 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 33 | #1,340 | 0.03 |
| 1940 | 42 | #1,122 | 0.04 |
| 1939 | 18 | #1,903 | 0.02 |
| 1938 | 26 | #1,488 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 14 | #2,229 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 15 | #2,074 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 14 | #2,234 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 21 | #1,661 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 15 | #2,084 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 15 | #2,164 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 17 | #1,970 | 0.02 |
| 1930 | 16 | #2,135 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 30 | #1,398 | 0.03 |
| 1928 | 18 | #2,038 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 17 | #2,194 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 15 | #2,382 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,464 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,569 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 12 | #2,781 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,766 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,450 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,815 | under 0.01 |
| 1916 | 10 | #2,891 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 8 | #3,221 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,802 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 5 | #3,118 | 0.01 |
| 1908 | 5 | #2,213 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Erika a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Erika has been given almost only to girls: 548 boys in 111 years of records.
Girls and boys named Erika: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Erika, and how old are they?
121,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 126,212 Americans ever recorded as Erika. The median Erika alive today is 37 years old; half are between 30 and 46.
The 2020 Census counted 147,434 people named Erika (147,205 women and girls, 229 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 121,380 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 132 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,950 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 30,000 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 59,200 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 26,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,920 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Erika born?
The states with the most babies named Erika are Texas, California and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 28 | #1,013 | 1.2× |
| California | 23 | #1,122 | 1.6× |
| Florida | 14 | #1,075 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 14 | #699 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 10 | #872 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 10 | #635 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,048 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,254 | 0.7× |
| Utah | 7 | #558 | 0.7× |
| New York | 6 | #1,893 | 1.1× |
Where Erika is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Erika is most over-represented in California: since 1910 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Erika with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 387,466 babies since 1880, Erika is the second most given (33% of them). In 2025 it was given to 213 of their 446 babies (48%), the 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 Erika
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 Erika and names like it
- Compare Erika and EricaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sErika peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Erika since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Erika: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Erika.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Erika alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with EMost given first.