Eric

Where Eric comes from

From Middle English Eric, from Old English Eoric, from Old Norse Eirríkr, Eiríkr (from ei (“always, eternal”, see aye) + ríkr (“ruler”)), or from Proto-Germanic *Aizarīkijaz (from *aizō (“honor”) + *rīkijaz (“ruler”)). Less likely from einn (“sole, alone”) + ríkr (“ruler”), from Proto-Germanic *rīks (“king”, cognate to Latin rēx and Gaulish *rīx). The name was in use in Anglo-Saxon Britain, reinforced by Scandinavian settlers before the Norman Conquest. Compare Danish Erik, German Erich. Possible doublet of Euric.
— Wiktionary's entry for Eric
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #600 among boys — 10 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1917
    Eric Hobsbawm born
    British academic historian and Marxist historiographer
  3. 1945
    Eric Clapton born
    British musician
  4. 1976
    Peak, #13
    21,359 babies named Eric — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1997
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #35.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Eric Clapton · British musician, born 1945
  • Eric Hobsbawm · British academic historian and Marxist historiographer, 1917–2012
  • Eric Abidal · French footballer, born 1979
  • Eric Allin Cornell · American physicist, professor, born 1961
  • Eric Bana · Australian actor, born 1968

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.