How popular is the baby name Eric in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Eric.

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Popularity of the baby name Eric


Posts that mention the name Eric

Baby born in England, named after entire soccer team (1992)

soccer game

In 1992, Leeds United F.C. superfans Jeanne and Andrew Cazaux welcomed a baby boy. They named him “Dominic Andrew Lukic Newsome Fairclough Whyte Dorigo McAllister Batty Strachan Speed Chapman Cantona Cazaux” after the following Leeds players:

  • John Lukic
  • Jon Newsome
  • Chris Fairclough
  • Chris Whyte
  • Tony Dorigo
  • Gary McAllister
  • David Batty
  • Gordon Strachan
  • Gary Speed
  • Lee Chapman
  • Eric Cantona

So which team does Dominic root for these days? Arsenal. “I think I chose Arsenal mainly to rebel,” he said. “I was only about eight years old and it was just one of those things you do to go against your parents. They were disappointed but said that it was my choice.”

Dominic isn’t the only person out there named after a soccer team, believe it or not. There are several others, including Jensen Jay Alexander Bikey Carlisle Duff Elliot Fox Iwelumo Marney Mears Paterson Thompson Wallace Preston, who was named after 14 Burnley F.C. players.

Source: So what would you do if your parents named you after the entire Leeds United team?

Image: Adapted from Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Football by José Goulão under CC BY-SA 2.0.

How did Erik Estrada influence baby names?

Actor Erik Estrada in the TV show "CHiPs."
Erik Estrada in “CHiPs“

The main characters of the television show CHiPs (1977-1983) were two motorcycle-riding highway patrolmen of the California Highway Patrol (CHP — hence the weird capitalization of CHiPs).

One of those two patrolmen was Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, played by actor Erik Estrada. (In his case, Erik was short for Enrique, the Spanish version of Henry.)

The show was most successful during the 1979-1980 season, in terms of ratings. Also in 1979, Erik Estrada was voted one of “The 10 Sexiest Bachelors in the World” by People magazine.

So it’s not surprising that the baby name Erik saw peak usage in 1980, and that the more popular spelling, Eric, saw a spike in usage that year as well:

Boys named ErikBoys named Eric
19823,63419,882
19813,92320,724
19804,918†22,629
19794,63920,272
19783,26519,781
19772,78820,747
19762,75621,369
†Peak usage

There were also two CHiPs-related one-hit wonders in the baby name data. One was Estrada:

  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: unlisted
  • 1980: 5 baby boys named Estrada [debut]
  • 1979: unlisted
  • 1978: unlisted

The other, Poncho, doesn’t quite match Ponch or Poncherello, but was still likely influenced by the show:

  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: unlisted
  • 1980: 5 baby boys named Poncho [debut]
  • 1979: unlisted
  • 1978: unlisted

Finally, I did manage find a handful of U.S.-born males with “Erik Estrada” as their first and middle names. Most of them were born during the years CHiPs was on the air.

A decade after CHiPs was cancelled, what was Erik Estrada up to? Hosting the “Kebrina’s Psychic Answer” infomercial.

Sources: Erik Estrada – Wikipedia, Ratings – CHiPs Wiki, SSA

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. Non-Biblical

How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?

This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.

First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.

For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. non-Biblical.
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
  • Biblical names: Adam, Alexander, Andrew, Austin (via Augustus), Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elijah, Ethan, Jack (via John), Jackson (via John), Jacob, James, Jason, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Justin (via Justus), Lucas, Mark, Matthew, Michael, Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Thomas, Timothy, Zachary
  • Non-Biblical names: Aiden, Albert, Anthony, Arthur, Billy, Brandon, Brian, Charles, Christopher, Dennis, Donald, Dylan, Edward, Eric, Frank, Gary, George, Harold, Harry, Henry, Jayden, Jeffrey, Kenneth, Kevin, Larry, Liam, Logan, Louis, Mason, Raymond, Richard, Robert, Ronald, Ryan, Scott, Tyler, Walter, William
  • Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)

It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.

Here are the year-by-year tallies:

YearTop 20 names
given to…		# Biblical# Non-Biblical
191440% of baby boys5 (25%)15 (75%)
192443% of baby boys6 (30%)14 (70%)
193443% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
194447% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
195446% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
196442% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
197438% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
198436% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
199427% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
200419% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
201414% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)

But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.

By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:

Biblical names (49)Non-Biblical names (51)
Noah, Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James, Daniel, Elijah, Benjamin, Matthew, Jackson (via John), David, Lucas, Joseph, Andrew, Samuel, Gabriel, Joshua, John, Luke, Isaac, Caleb, Nathan, Jack (via John), Jonathan, Levi, Jaxon (via John), Julian (via Julius), Isaiah, Eli, Aaron, Thomas, Jordan, Jeremiah, Nicholas, Evan, Josiah, Austin (via Augustus), Jace (via Jason), Jason, Jose, Ian, Adam, Zachary, Jaxson (via John), Asher, Nathaniel, Justin (via Justus), JuanLiam, Mason, William, Logan, Aiden, Jayden, Anthony, Carter, Dylan, Christopher, Oliver, Henry, Sebastian, Owen, Ryan, Wyatt, Hunter, Christian, Landon, Charles, Connor, Cameron, Adrian, Gavin, Robert, Brayden, Grayson, Colton, Angel, Dominic, Kevin, Brandon, Tyler, Parker, Ayden, Chase, Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Blake, Cooper, Lincoln, Xavier, Bentley, Kayden, Carson, Brody, Ryder, Leo, Luis, Camden

(Christian, Angel, Xavier, Dominic…all technically non-Biblical, despite having strong ties to Christianity.)

50%-50% isn’t quite as extreme as 70%-30%, but it’s still noticeably more Biblical than 1914’s 25%-75%.

Do any of these results surprise you?

Baby born to Liverpool F.C. fans, named Ynwa

Liverpool F.C. logo
Liverpool F.C. logo

Norwegian couple Tor-Eric and Eirin Iversen, big fans of Liverpool F.C. (the English soccer team), welcomed a baby girl back in 2010 and named her Karoline Ynwa.

The middle name Ynwa is an acronym that stands for “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — the song that was adopted as Liverpool’s anthem in the 1960s. It originally comes from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel (1945).

Tor-Eric and Eirin weren’t sure about the name Ynwa (which they pronounce “yee-nwa”) at first, but it grew on them over time. Before Ynwa they’d considered the name Gerrard (for Steven Gerrard) but decided that Gerrard wouldn’t work well for a girl.

Pål Christian Møller, head of Liverpool FC Supporters Club Norway, says the Liverpool-inspired baby name he sees most often is simply “Liverpool.” (He said if he could give himself another name, he’d add Oliver and become “O Liverpål.”) Another acronym-based Liverpool name he’s seen is Tia, which stands for “this is Anfield.” Anfield is the stadium at which Liverpool F.C. has been playing since the 1890s.

Now that news of a child named Ynwa has surfaced, do you think Liverpool fans in England will start using the name? And, if so, do you think Ynwa will ever reach the minimum usage requirement of 3 babies per year to be included on a future England and Wales baby name list?

P.S. Other modern-day acronym baby names include Ily, Ilys & Ktyal. I’ve also heard rumors that the baby name Yolo now exists, but I have yet to see proof of this.

Sources: Ynwa (4) fikk ikke velge favorittlag selv, Liverpool FC fans from Norway name their daughter YNWA (discovered originally via Clare’s Name News)

Image: Adapted from Liverpool F.C. logo (fair use)