Ericson
Masculine · “son of Eric”
Iceland still does this properly. Scandinavian surnames ending in -son were once true patronymics, changing every generation, and Iceland never stopped: a man called Jon Eriksson has a son called Eriksson's son, not another Eriksson, and a daughter called Jonsdottir.
How old is the name Ericson?
Ericson first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Ericson alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Ericson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ericson most popular?
Ericson peaked in 1967, reaching #3231 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 3,572 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eirikr to Ericson
The story of Ericson
Leif Eiriksson sailed west from Greenland around the year 1000 and reached a land he called Vinland, which is now generally identified with the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland; his father Erik the Red had been outlawed from Iceland for killing and had settled Greenland. Scandinavian-American communities, particularly in the upper midwest, made a great deal of the Vinland voyages in the nineteenth century, and the given name Ericson belongs to that enthusiasm; its best year in United States records is 1967. The Icelandic patronymic system it descends from is still in daily use.
Meaning
son of Eric, from a name meaning ever-ruler
Old Norse Eirikr combines a first element usually read as ei, ever or always, or as a word meaning alone, with rikr, ruler or powerful. The -son ending is a patronymic, and in Iceland it remains a live one rather than a fixed surname; the rest of Scandinavia froze the patronymics into hereditary surnames in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
How the name formed
- Eirikr
- Eiriksson
- Ericson
Related forms: Eriksson · Eiriksson · Eriksen · Eriksen
Pronouncing Ericson
ERR-ik-sun
Three syllables with the stress at the front. Icelandic and Swedish hold the k and s as separate sounds; English runs them together.
Nicknames for Ericson
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
- 200829 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3231reached in 1967
- Change vs 2024
- −7.7%12 in 2025, from 13
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.
Ericson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eriksson in Swedish — spelling variant
- Eiriksson in Icelandic — same name
- Eriksen in Norwegian — related form
- Eriksen in Danish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Ericsons among us
people named Ericson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Ericson
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ericson
- #6803
- Ericson on the 2025 chart
- #890
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ericson went to 12 boys in 2025, but Erickson 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 — 5,913 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 142,340 for Ericson 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 Kiah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ericson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kiah climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kiah's path sketches the road Ericson is walking now.
Ericson 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
Ericson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ericson 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 and a documented voyage of discovery behind it.
- Eric is available inside it and is completely established.
- Marks a Scandinavian heritage clearly.
- Erickson and Ericsson are both more common spellings.
- It reads as a surname, which is exactly what it is.
- The one-s spelling is the American simplification of a two-s Swedish name.
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Ericson
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ericsons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Ericson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ericson?
- Ericson is one of 3 recorded spellings. Erickson is the more common one — 16 births in 2025 against 12 for Ericson.
- How popular is the name Ericson in 2025?
- Ericson ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ericson?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Ericson — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ericson with classmates?
- Ericson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ericson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ericson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ericson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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