Erickson
Masculine · “Son of Erik”
Erickson is son of Erik, and Erik is one of the great Norse names: sigr and ríkr, or ei and ríkr, giving something like the eternal ruler. The surname belongs to Scandinavian America and the given name to the surname wave.
How old is the name Erickson?
Erickson first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Erickson alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,200 people named Erickson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Erickson most popular?
Erickson peaked in 1987, reaching #2468 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 3,140 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eiríkr to Erickson
The story of Erickson
Erik is one of the oldest Scandinavian royal names, and Erik the Red founded the Greenland settlements while his son Leif Erikson reached North America around the year 1000 — which makes Erickson a surname with a genuine claim on the continent. Scandinavian emigration to the American upper Midwest between 1860 and 1910 brought Erickson, Ericson and Eriksson in very large numbers; it is among the commonest surnames in Minnesota. Its use as a given name belongs to the general surname-name movement and peaks in 1987, well after the immigration itself.
Meaning
Son of Erik; ever-ruler
From Old Norse Eiríkr, generally read with ei, ever or always, and ríkr, ruler — giving eternal ruler. An alternative first element ein, one or alone, is also proposed. The patronymic -son is the ordinary Scandinavian formation. The reading of Erik is standard, with the first element mildly disputed.
How the name formed
- Eiríkr
- Erik
- Erickson
Related forms: Eriksson · Eriksen · Eriksen · Eiríkr
Pronouncing Erickson
AIR-ik-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Swedish gives the r a trill and the final syllable more weight; the American saying is otherwise the same.
Nicknames for Erickson
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 200850 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2468reached in 1987
- Change vs 2024
- −54.3%16 in 2025, from 35
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.
Erickson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eriksson in Swedish — spelling variant
- Eriksen in Norwegian — spelling variant
- Eriksen in Danish — spelling variant
- Eiríkr in Old Norse — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Massachusetts.
Ericksons among us
people named Erickson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Erickson
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Erickson
- #5608
- Erickson on the 2025 chart
- #890
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Erickson went to 16 boys in 2025, but Ericson and Erikson are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 38, which makes it the 890th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,718 places above the chart.
- Erickson16
- Ericson12
- Erikson10
About 1 boy in 44,949 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Erickson 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 Ruddy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Erickson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ruddy climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ruddy's path sketches the road Erickson is walking now.
Erickson 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
Erickson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Erickson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Erick and Rick are both complete short forms with their own histories.
- The Norse meaning is settled and grand.
- Everyone can say and spell it after one hearing.
- Erickson, Ericson, Erikson and Eriksson are four spellings of one surname.
- It reads as a surname and will be assumed to be one on forms.
- Three syllables is long for a given name that already contains a complete one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Erickson
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ericksons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Erickson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Erickson?
- Erickson is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 38 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ericson and Erikson.
- How popular is the name Erickson in 2025?
- Erickson ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Erickson?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Erickson — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Erickson with classmates?
- Erickson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Erickson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Erickson? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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