Aric
Masculine · “ever-ruler”
Aric is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,626 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Aric is a spelling of Eric, and the Norse compound behind it is grand — ever-ruler, or possibly ruler alone.
How old is the name Aric?
Aric first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Aric alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 7,200 people named Aric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aric most popular?
Aric peaked in 1977, reaching #502 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 3,747 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eirikr to Aric
The story of Aric
Eirikr was a Norse name borne by kings of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and Eirik the Red founded the Greenland settlement in the tenth century while his son Leif reached North America. English took Eric from Scandinavian settlement and again in the nineteenth century. Aric is a modern American respelling that appears in the records from the 1970s.
Meaning
ever-ruler, sole ruler
From Old Norse ei, ever or always, and rikr, a ruler; a competing reading takes the first element as einn, one, giving sole ruler. Both are held and both make the name a large claim.
How the name formed
- Eirikr
- Eric
- Aric
Related forms: Eric · Erik · Eiríkr
Pronouncing Aric
AIR-ik
Two syllables, first stressed. Aric and Eric are said identically.
Nicknames for Aric
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1946
- Most boys named
- 1971219 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #502reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%24 in 2025, from 32
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aric in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eric in English — spelling variant
- Erik in Swedish — same name
- Eiríkr in Old Norse — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Arics among us
people named Aric are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Aric
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aric
- #4249
- Aric on the 2025 chart
- #854
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aric went to 24 boys in 2025, but Arik, Aaric and Aarik are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 74, which makes it the 854th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,395 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 23,082 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 71,170 for Aric itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ignacio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aric's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ignacio climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ignacio's path sketches the road Aric is walking now.
Aric sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Aric beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aric in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Norse meaning with a documented royal record behind it.
- Ari and Ric are both complete short forms in their own right.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Eric is the standard spelling and will be written for him constantly.
- Aric, Erik, Erick and Eric are all in use and only Eric is common.
- It is strongly associated with one American decade.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Aric
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arics are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,200 people named Aric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aric?
- Aric is one of 4 recorded spellings. Arik is the more common one — 35 births in 2025 against 24 for Aric.
- How popular is the name Aric in 2025?
- Aric ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aric?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Aric — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aric with classmates?
- Aric will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aric
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aric? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aric and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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