Humanverse

Eriel vs Erika

American parents have registered 126,212 Erikas since 1880, against 819 Eriels. Erika is still ahead, with 213 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Eriel against Erika, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Eriel Erika

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Erika has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1908 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Eriel had 32 and Erika had 224.

Side by side

  Eriel Erika
Total US births 819126,212
Most in one year 504,593
Babies in 2025 24213
Estimated living today 810122,000
Median age today 1436
Peak year 20141990
Best rank 3,848th girls74th girls
Rank in 2025 7,885th1,109th
First recorded 19861908
Girls / boys 709 / 110125,664 / 548

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Erikas alive today are over 36; half the Eriels are over 14. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Eriel and Erika.