Eric - Meaning of Eric

What does Eric mean?

Pronounce
Eric

[ 2 syll. e-ric, er-ic ] The baby boy name Eric is pronounced as EHR-ihK (English) or ehR-IYK (French) †. Eric is largely used in the English, French, and Scandinavian languages, and its origin is Old Norse and Germanic. From Old Norse roots, its meaning is ever ruling, lone ruler, island ruler. Eiríkr (Old Norse) and Eyrekr (Old Norse) are old forms of Eric. Eiríkr or Eyrekr is composed of the first element 'ei' (meaning ever, always) or 'einn' (alone, lone), with the second element 'rikr'. Eric the Red (950-1003) was a 10th-century Norse chieftain who discovered Greenland. Several early kings of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway also bore the name. The name was introduced into Britain by Danish settlers prior to the Norman Conquest and it was used modestly throughout the Middle Ages. It was only in the 19th century that the name saw a rise in use among English speakers, mainly due to Frederic William Farrar's popular story on school life, 'Eric, or, Little by Little' (1858), and H. Rider Haggard's Norse romance set in Iceland, Eric Brighteyes (1891).

In addition, Eric is an English and French pet form of the name Frederick (English).

The name Erica (English, French, German, Scandinavian, and Scottish) is the female equivalent of Eric.

The name Eric is used to a great extent; it has 46 variants that are used in English and other languages. Variants used in English include Aaric, Aeric, Aerick, Aric, Arick, Arik, Audrick, Aurick, Erec, Ereck, Erica, Ericas, Erich (also used in Czech and German), Erickas, Erikas, Eriq, Erique, Erix, Erric, Errik, Eryc, Eryck, Ric, and Ricki. Other English forms include the pet forms Rick, Rickey, Ricky, and Rikki, and the variant spellings Erek, Erick, Erik (also used in Czech, German, Hungarian, Scandinavian, Slavic, and Dutch), and Errick.

Foreign variants of Eric include Eerikki (Finnish), Eero (Finnish), Eirik (Scandinavian), Eiríkur (Scandinavian), Elika (Hawaiian), Erico (Italian and Portuguese), Eriks (Latvian and Russian), Erki (Latvian), Erkki (Finnish), Eryk (Polish), Eurico (Spanish), Érico (Portuguese), Jerk (Scandinavian), and Jerker (Scandinavian).

See also the related categories, ruler (king), red (rose), life, english, norman, island, element, french, germanic (german), scandinavian, and danish.

Eric is popular as a baby name for boys. The name's popularity rose from the 1900s up to the 1970s. At the peak of its usage in 1972, 1.316% of baby boys were given the name Eric. Its ranking then was #16. The baby name has since suffered a substantial loss in popularity. In 2018, its usage was only 0.124% and its ranking #160, but it was nonetheless the most popular out of all boy names in its group. In 2018, Eric was more widely used than the next most popular name, Erick, by 92% . The name Eric has predominantly been a baby boy name, though it has also been given to girls in the past century. In 1988, Eric as a baby boy name outnumbered its use as a girl name by 117 times.

Baby names that sound like Eric include Erik, Erric, Errick, Errik, Eryck, Eryk, Aeric, Aerick, Ariek, Eirik, Erek, Erez, Erich, Erick, Eriks, Erki, Erkki, Eros, Eurig, and Euros.

† Pronunciation for Eric: EH as in "ebb (EH.B)" ; R as in "race (R.EY.S)" ; IH as in "it (IH.T)" ; K as in "key (K.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"