Arica
Feminine
Arica is a port in the Atacama, the driest place on earth, and it was Peruvian until a war moved the border. The city has been Chilean since the eighteen-eighties and the question of who it belongs to was still being negotiated fifty years later.
How old is the name Arica?
Arica first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Arica alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 2,300 people named Arica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arica most popular?
Arica peaked in 1982, reaching #1317 nationally. See the whole 1982 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Arica
The War of the Pacific was fought partly over bird droppings — the nitrate and guano deposits along that coast were worth an enormous amount before synthetic fertiliser — and Chile took the whole province. Arica sits at the top of the country now, a few miles from Peru, with a headland above it that the battle is named for. Whether any American family naming a daughter Arica had heard of it is doubtful; the likelier source is Erica with the first vowel changed, and the record does not distinguish.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a place name, its origin is disputed and probably from a local language predating Spanish. As a respelling of Erica it descends from a Norse compound about rulers, and the two are unrelated.
Pronouncing Arica
AIR-ik-uh
Three syllables with the weight at the front. Spanish says ah-REE-kah, with the stress in the middle.
Nicknames for Arica
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 198295 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1317reached in 1982
- Change vs 2022
- −33.3%6 in 2023, from 9
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.
Aricas among us
people named Arica are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Arica sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Every sound in it is easy in English and the spelling follows the sound.
- Both short forms are usable and one is a standing Spanish name.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being entirely readable.
- Erica is far commoner and will be written instead.
- The place and the name have nothing to do with each other unless a family says so.
- It reads clearly as a name of the second half of the twentieth century.
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Arica
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Aricas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Arica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arica in 2025?
- Arica is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Arica with classmates?
- Arica will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arica? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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