Erykah
A feminine name of uncertain origin, potentially derived from Hebrew meaning "ruler, leader".
Name Census estimates that about 1,519 living Americans carry the first name Erykah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Erykah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Erykah births was 1997 (279 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Erykah. 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 Erykah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 225,645 Americans
Peak year
1997
279 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,702
Tracked since 1997
Census
Erykah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,214 people with the first name Erykah, which placed it at #10,805 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
#10,805
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Erykah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erykah is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and White (9.6%). 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 Erykah 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 Erykah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.6% · 833
- Hispanic or Latino11.3% · 137
- White9.6% · 116
- Two or more races8.2% · 100
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 11
Popularity
Erykah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Erykah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 685 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Erykah 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 Erykah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Erykahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Erykah, while District of Columbia, Wisconsin, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Erykah
The name Erykah is a relatively modern variation of the traditional Hebrew name Erica, which itself derives from the Old Norse word "Eirikr," meaning "eternal ruler." This name gained popularity during the Viking Age, particularly in Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe.
While the name Erica has been documented in various historical records throughout the centuries, the specific spelling "Erykah" is a more recent development. One of the earliest known notable individuals to bear this particular spelling was Erykah Badu, the renowned American singer-songwriter and actress born in 1971.
Beyond Erykah Badu, there are a few other notable individuals who have carried this name throughout history. For instance, Erykah Doggett was a British actress known for her roles in television series like "Waterloo Road" and "Casualty" in the early 2000s.
Another individual with this name was Erykah Hawkins, an American writer and poet who published several collections of poetry in the late 20th century, including "Crave" (1996) and "Shedding Light" (2001).
In the field of sports, Erykah Simmons was a Canadian basketball player who competed professionally in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for teams like the Phoenix Mercury and the San Antonio Stars in the early 2000s.
Additionally, Erykah Vaughn was a notable American artist and sculptor active in the late 20th century, known for her intricate metal sculptures and installations that explored themes of identity and cultural representation.
While the name Erykah has roots in ancient languages and cultures, its modern usage and popularity can be attributed to its unique and distinctive spelling, setting it apart from the more traditional variations of the name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Erykah
People
Erykah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Erykah 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
Erykah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Erykah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,519 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Erykah 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 225,645 US residents.
Is Erykah a common name?
We classify Erykah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,548 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Erykah most popular?
The single biggest year for Erykah was 1997, when 279 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Erykah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Erykah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,214 people with the name Erykah, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,805 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 Erykah 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 Erykah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Erykah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,209 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Erykah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Erykah is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and White (9.6%). 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 Erykah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Erykah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (833 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 Erykah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Erykah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Erykah 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 Erykah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Erykah 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 Erykah 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 Erykah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.