girl's name
Erica
EH-rik-uh
- Origin Norse
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 245,728
Northern Ireland
#445
2022 births
Erica is a girl's name with two independent sources: the feminine of Eric, meaning eternal ruler, and the botanical Latin name of heather. So it means the same plant as Heather by an entirely different route.
- Erica is a name of Norse origin.
- Peaked in 1986, when 10,032 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 21,253 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1909.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Erica over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1900s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1900s | 5 |
| 1910s | 21 |
| 1920s | 58 |
| 1930s | 83 |
| 1940s | 521 |
| 1950s | 1,537 |
| 1960s | 6,339 |
| 1970s | 49,864 |
| 1980s | 93,682 |
| 1990s | 55,950 |
| 2000s | 18,901 |
| 2010s | 4,585 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,091 |
What Erica means
Erica means eternal ruler if taken as the feminine of Eric, and heather if taken from the botanical Latin. The two sources are unrelated and both are genuine.
Where Erica comes from
Erica arrives twice. As the feminine of Eric it carries the Old Norse Eiríkr — ei, ever or eternal, joined to ríkr, ruler — the name of the Norse kings and of Erik the Red, who named Greenland as an early exercise in marketing. Separately, Erica is the botanical Latin genus name for heather, from the Greek ereike, and it is used as a plant name in Scandinavian and Italian naming. So Erica and Heather, which sit in these pages a few hundred names apart, are the same plant in two languages, arrived at independently.
Erica in use
Erica peaked in the United States in 1986, when 10,032 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 557th in Scotland on 5 births, 585th in England and Wales on 67, 1397th in the United States on 156 and 2044th in France, across 245,728 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. Scotland and England and Wales now place it far above the United States, where most of its volume was registered.
How popular is Erica?
In 2025, Erica was given to 156 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Erica is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Erica is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Érica | Érica is a rare spelling of Erica, written with an acute accent and recorded about 30 times, mostly in France. | 30 |
Names that peaked alongside Erica
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Erica also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Erica over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Erica
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Erica in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Erica
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Erica — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Erica
What does the name Erica mean?
Eternal ruler as the feminine of Eric, or heather from the botanical Latin. The two sources are unrelated.
Is Erica a flower name?
Yes — Erica is the botanical genus name for heather, so it means the same plant as the name Heather.
Is it Erica or Erika?
Both are used; Erica is the more common spelling in our data and Erika the more Germanic.
How popular is Erica?
585th in England and Wales and 1397th in the United States.
Is Erica a girl's or a boy's name?
Erica is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Erica?
Erica has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Erica?
Erica is usually shortened to Rica.
Is Erica a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Erica currently ranks #557 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.