Erie
Of English origin, derived from the Erie tribe or Erie Lake.
Name Census estimates that about 1,802 living Americans carry the first name Erie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Erie today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Erie births was 1970 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Erie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Erie was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Erie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 190,208 Americans
Peak year
1970
81 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2002 SSA rank
#8,731
Tracked since 1880
Census
Erie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 772 people with the first name Erie, which placed it at #15,023 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#15,023
National first-name rank
People counted
772
772 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Erie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erie is White at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Black (38.2%) and Hispanic (12.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Erie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Erie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.2% · 318
- Black or African American38.2% · 295
- Hispanic or Latino12.7% · 98
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 36
- Two or more races2.7% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Erie
Erie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,436 total registrations, 1,960 (57.0%) were male and 1,476 (43.0%) were female.
Erie as a male name
- Ranked #8,731 in 2002
- 7 male births in 2002
- Peak: 1970 (81 births)
Erie as a female name
- Ranked #9,086 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (42 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Erie on both sides of the split. Of the 773 people counted with this name, 407 were male (52.7%) and 366 were female (47.3%).
Popularity
Erie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Erie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 527 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Erie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Erie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eries live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Erie, while New Jersey, Louisiana, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Erie
Erie is a masculine given name with roots tracing back to the ancient Greek language. The name derives from the Greek word "Eirēnē," which translates to "peace." This connection suggests that the name Erie may have been bestowed upon newborns as a symbol of tranquility and serenity.
The earliest known documentation of the name Erie can be found in records from the Byzantine Empire, which ruled over the eastern Mediterranean region from the 4th to the 15th century AD. During this era, the name Erie was occasionally used among Greek-speaking populations within the empire's territories.
One notable figure bearing the name Erie was a Byzantine scholar and theologian who lived in the 9th century AD. Erie of Constantinople authored several influential works on Christian theology and played a pivotal role in the intellectual discourse of his time.
In the realm of literature, the name Erie appears in the epic poem "The Iliad" by Homer, one of the earliest and most influential works of ancient Greek literature. The poem, believed to have been composed around the 8th century BC, mentions a character named Erie, though the context and significance of this reference remain ambiguous.
Fast-forwarding to more recent history, Erie gained some prominence in the 19th century when an American city in Pennsylvania was named after the Erie tribe of Native Americans. While not directly related to the given name's origins, this association with the Erie tribe and the city's geography may have contributed to the name's recognition and usage in the United States.
Among notable individuals bearing the name Erie throughout history, we can mention:
1. Erie of Constantinople (9th century AD) - Byzantine scholar and theologian.
2. Erie Neville (1519-1576) - English Tudor nobleman and courtier.
3. Erie Eriksen (1857-1938) - Norwegian explorer and whaler active in the Arctic regions.
4. Erie Bock (1890-1957) - German architect and urban planner known for his work in Berlin.
5. Erie Harrington (1918-2005) - American jazz saxophonist and bandleader.
While the name Erie may not be as widely used today as it once was, its historical roots and connections to various cultures and figures throughout time make it a unique and intriguing choice for a given name.
People
Erie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Erie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Erie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Erie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,802 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Erie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 190,208 US residents.
Is Erie a common name?
We classify Erie as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,436 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Erie most popular?
The single biggest year for Erie was 1970, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Erie is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Erie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 772 people with the name Erie, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,023 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Erie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Erie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Erie on both sides of the split. Of the 773 people counted with this name, 407 were male (52.7%) and 366 were female (47.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Erie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erie is White at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Black (38.2%) and Hispanic (12.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Erie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Erie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.2% (318 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Erie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Erie a male name?
Yes, 57.0% of people registered as Erie in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Erie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Erie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Erie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Erie?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Erie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.