Erie
Feminine
Erie is given to both — 1,482 girls and 1,958 boys since 1880. See Erie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Lake Erie is named after a people who were gone before most of the lake was mapped. The Erie lived south of it and were dispersed by the Iroquois in the middle of the seventeenth century; almost nothing of their language survives, and what their own name for themselves meant is now guesswork. The lake kept the word, and American parents in the nineteenth century took it from the lake.
How old is the name Erie?
Erie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Erie alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 400 people named Erie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Erie most popular?
Erie peaked in 1884, reaching #614 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,594 places below that high. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Erie
The Erie were an Iroquoian-speaking people of the southern shore, and the Haudenosaunee destroyed or absorbed them in a series of campaigns in the 1650s; survivors were adopted into other nations. The lake carried their name into English, and the Erie Canal carried it further — it was the great engineering fact of early American life, and the word turns up on maps, counties and towns all over the northeast. Naming children after it belongs to the same nineteenth-century habit that produced Alma, Vesta and Ada, and the record here begins with the very first American statistics.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name of the Erie people is recorded by French missionaries in a form usually read as long tail, thought to refer to a wildcat or panther — which is why early French maps call it the lake of the cat. That reading rests on a small amount of evidence gathered second-hand, and it cannot be treated as established. The people's own language is essentially lost.
Pronouncing Erie
EER-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is said exactly like the lake, and identically to the English word eerie, which is a coincidence and a permanent one.
Nicknames for Erie
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 191739 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #614reached in 1884
- Change vs 2023
- −62.5%6 in 2025, from 16
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.
Eries among us
people named Erie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Erie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Erie 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
Erie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Erie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can say it and spell it after hearing it once, because everyone has seen the lake on a map.
- Four letters and two open syllables — it fits anywhere.
- It names a real place with a documented and consequential history.
- It is recorded for boys as well as girls, though nearly all are girls.
- It is a homophone of eerie, meaning strange or unsettling, and that will come up.
- It carries the name of a people who were destroyed, which is worth knowing rather than discovering later.
- It reads as a place name first to most Americans, particularly in the northeast.
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What they receive
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Erie
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eries are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Erie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Erie in 2025?
- Erie ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Erie?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Erie — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Erie with classmates?
- Erie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Erie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208 · Jack#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Erie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Erie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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