Ermias
Masculine · “Yahweh will exalt”
Ermias is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,245 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Ermias is the Ethiopian and Eritrean form of Jeremiah, carried into Ge'ez from the Greek of the Septuagint and read aloud in Ethiopian Orthodox churches for well over a thousand years. It keeps the shape of a very old biblical name while sounding almost nothing like the English version, and it settles into three easy syllables in the mouth: er-MEE-as.
How old is the name Ermias?
Ermias first appears in US birth records in 1999 — 26 years ago. The typical Ermias is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,200 people named Ermias are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ermias most popular?
Ermias peaked in 2019, reaching #540 nationally. Today it ranks #1145, 605 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yirmeyahu to Ermias
The story of Ermias
The name begins as Hebrew Yirmeyahu, borne by the prophet whose book stands among the longest in the Hebrew Bible. Greek translators rendered it Ieremias, and it was from Greek that the scriptures passed into Ge'ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where the initial vowel fell away and the name became Ermias. It has stayed in continuous use in Amharic and Tigrinya ever since, quite separately from the Latin route that gave English Jeremiah and Jeremy. Its appearance in American records is recent and tracks the growth of Ethiopian and Eritrean communities, with the strongest presence in California, Texas and New York; the Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle was born Ermias Asghedom to an Eritrean father.
Meaning
Yahweh will exalt, or Yahweh will raise up
The underlying Hebrew name is Yirmeyahu, built from the divine name and a root meaning to raise or lift up. Ermias inherits that meaning through Greek and Ge'ez rather than translating anything new.
How the name formed
- Yirmeyahu
- Ieremias
- Ermias
Related forms: Jeremiah · Yirmeyahu · Ieremias · Ermiyas · Jeremías · Irmiya
Pronouncing Ermias
er-MEE-as
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Amharic speakers often add a light glide, closer to er-MEE-yas. In American English you will also hear AIR-mee-us, with the stress pulled forward; both are used and neither is a mistake.
Nicknames for Ermias
High
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
- 1999
- Most boys named
- 2019523 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #540reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −19.3%184 in 2025, from 228
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.
Ermias in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jeremiah in English — same name
- Yirmeyahu in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ieremias in Greek — same name
- Ermiyas in Amharic/Tigrinya — spelling variant
- Jeremías in Spanish — same name
- Irmiya in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Ermiass among us
people named Ermias are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,283 born in 2025 was named Ermias
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Shelton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ermias's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shelton climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shelton's path sketches the road Ermias is walking now.
Ermias 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
Where Ermias is headed
Ermias looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 30% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ermias beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ermias in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Belongs to one of the oldest continuously used names in the world, with a documented line from Hebrew through Greek to Ge'ez.
- Has an English counterpart in Jeremiah, which gives it an immediate point of reference for people who have not met the name before.
- Ermi is a ready-made short form already in real use, so the name does not have to be shortened by invention.
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, with no silent letters and no competing English spellings in wide use.
- In use across Amharic, Tigrinya and diaspora communities on several continents.
- Ermiyas is a common alternative spelling, so expect to correct the extra y from time to time — and to spell the name out on forms and over the phone.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled in American English between er-MEE-as and AIR-mee-us. Deciding early which one your family uses saves a lot of gentle correcting later.
- It sits close to Elias in sound and shape, and the two are sometimes confused on first hearing.
- A child named Ermias will most likely be the only one in the school. For some families that is the appeal; it also means the name arrives without any local familiarity to lean on.
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What they receive
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Ermias
Masculine · #1145 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ermiass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Ermias are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ermias in 2025?
- Ermias ranks #1145 among US boy names in 2025, with 184 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ermias?
- About 1 in every 9,283 US boys born in 2025 was named Ermias — 184 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ermias with classmates?
- Ermias will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ermias
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hasan#1145 · Kross#1145 · Kristian#1145 · Sol#1145 · Kenan#1145 · Archibald#1145 · Cain#1141 · Adiel#1141
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ermias? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ermias and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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