Eris
A feminine name of Greek mythology meaning "strife" or "discord".
Name Census estimates that about 2,447 living Americans carry the first name Eris. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Eris today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eris births was 1923 (236 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eris. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Eris with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Eris is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 140,071 Americans
Peak year
1923
236 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,650
Tracked since 1913
Census
Eris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,122 people with the first name Eris, which placed it at #7,246 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
#7,246
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,122 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eris is White at 41.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.8%) and Black (21.3%). 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 Eris 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 Eris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.1% · 872
- Hispanic or Latino28.8% · 612
- Black or African American21.3% · 453
- Two or more races5.6% · 119
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 48
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Eris
Eris leans heavily female at 83.9% of total registrations, but 512 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Eris as a male name
- Ranked #5,713 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (20 births)
Eris as a female name
- Ranked #1,650 in 2024
- 124 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (226 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Eris on both sides of the split. Of the 2,123 people counted with this name, 634 were male (29.9%) and 1,489 were female (70.1%).
Popularity
Eris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eris from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 862 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eris 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 Eris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Eris, while Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eris
The name Eris originates from Ancient Greek mythology and language. It is derived from the Greek word "eris" which means strife or discord. The name first appeared in Greek literature and texts around the 8th century BCE.
In Greek mythology, Eris was the goddess of strife, chaos, and discord. She was often depicted as a woman with a scowling expression, tousled hair, and a torch in her hand. According to the Iliad, Eris was responsible for sparking the Trojan War by throwing a golden apple inscribed "To the fairest" during the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, causing a dispute among the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Eris was in the epic poem "Works and Days" by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, who lived around 700 BCE. In this work, Hesiod personified Eris as a malignant deity who brought about misery and suffering.
Throughout history, the name Eris has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Eris, a Greek poetess from the island of Lesbos who lived around the 6th century BCE. Another notable figure was Eris of Cyzicus, a Greek philosopher and mathematician from the 5th century BCE.
In the 19th century, Eris was the name of a dwarf planet discovered in 2005 by astronomers Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz. The name was chosen to reflect the discord and controversy surrounding its classification as a planet or dwarf planet.
Other notable individuals named Eris include Eris Fieldwalker (born 1969), an American writer and pagan author, and Eris Chasma, a massive canyon on the planet Venus named after the Greek goddess.
People
Eris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eris 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
Eris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,447 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eris 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 140,071 US residents.
Is Eris a common name?
We classify Eris as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,187 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eris most popular?
The single biggest year for Eris was 1923, when 236 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eris is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,122 people with the name Eris, or 0.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,246 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 Eris 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 Eris?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Eris on both sides of the split. Of the 2,123 people counted with this name, 634 were male (29.9%) and 1,489 were female (70.1%). 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 Eris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eris is White at 41.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.8%) and Black (21.3%). 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 Eris most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.1% (872 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 Eris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eris a female name?
Yes, 83.9% of people registered as Eris in the SSA data are female. 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 Eris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eris 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 Eris 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 Eris?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Eris, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.