Eric

See also: eric, ERIC, Erić, and Éric

English

Alternative forms

• Erick, Erik, Eriq, Erique

Etymology

From Middle English Eric, from Old English Eoric, from Old Norse Eirríkr, Eiríkr (from ei (“always, eternal”, see aye) +‎ ríkr (“ruler”)), or from Proto-Germanic *Aizarīkijaz (from *aizō (“honor”) +‎ *rīkijaz (“ruler”)). Less likely from einn (“sole, alone”) +‎ ríkr (“ruler”), from Proto-Germanic *rīks (“king”, cognate to Latin rēx and Gaulish *rīx). The name was in use in Anglo-Saxon Britain, reinforced by Scandinavian settlers before the Norman Conquest. Compare Danish Erik, German Erich. Possible doublet of Euric.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛɹɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪk

Proper noun

Eric

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
   • 1859, Frederic William Farrar, chapter II, in Eric, or Little by Little: A Tale of Roslyn School:

     "What's your name?" "Eric - I mean Williams." "Then why don't you say what you mean?"

   • 1959, Roentgens, Rads and Riddles: A Symposium on Supervoltage Radiation Therapy., U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, page 71:

     Mark it. Professor Roberts does not like the name Eric. This happens to be one of his given names, and it is a very honorable one. Eric was the first Viking explorer of the North American continent, and this ERIC we hope will be an explorer in the fields of complex therapy.

   • 2012 April 3, Laura Smith-Spark, “Are mass killings on the increase? Criminologist says no”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 June 2021:

     In 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives in the school library.

   • 2025 August 7, Zach Vasquez, “From puppy murder to racist podcasts: South Park’s anti-deportation episode is utterly ruthless TV”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 August 2025:

     The episode follows two different stories: in one, the show’s resident bigot, Eric Cartman, is outraged to learn that fellow fourth grader Clyde has risen to prominence as a white nationalist podcaster who makes offensive claims about women, Jewish people, Black people and other minority groups to goad them into debating him in exploitative viral videos (“WOKE STUDENT TOTALLY PWNED”).

Related terms

• feminine forms: Erica, Erika

Translations

male given name

• Arabic: إِرِيك m (ʔirīk)
• Armenian: Էրիկ (Ērik)
• Belarusian: Э́рык m (Éryk)
• Bengali: এরিক (erik)
• Bulgarian: Е́рик m (Érik)
• Catalan: Èric m
• Cherokee: ᎡᎵᎩ (eligi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 埃里克 (zh) (Āilǐkè)

• Czech: Erik (cs) m
• Danish: Erik c
• Dutch: Erik (nl)
• Esperanto: Eriko
• Estonian: Erik, Eerik
• Faroese: Eirikur m
• Finnish: Eerik (fi) (historical), Eero (fi), Erkki (fi) (given name)
• French: Éric (fr) m
• Galician: Eurico (gl)
• Georgian: ერიქ (erik)
• German: Erich (de) m
• Greek: Ερρίκος (el) m (Erríkos), Έρικ (el) (Érik) (transliteration from English)
• Greenlandic: Eerik
• Hindi: एरिक m (erik)
• Hungarian: Erik (hu)
• Icelandic: Eiríkur (is) m
• Italian: Erico (it) m
• Japanese: エリック (Erikku)
• Korean: 에릭 (Erik)
• Latin: Ērīcus m, Euricus m
• Latvian: Ēriks
• Lithuanian: Erikas (lt)
• Māori: Eriki
• Norwegian: Erik (no) m, Eirik (no) m
• Old Norse: Eiríkr m
• Polish: Eryk (pl) m
• Portuguese: Érico (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਐਰਿਕ m (airik)
• Russian: Э́рик (ru) m (Érik)
• Serbo-Croatian: Erik
• Slovak: Erik m
• Slovene: Êrik (sl) m
• Spanish: Erico (es) m
• Swedish: Erik (sv) c
• Turkish: Erik (tr)
• Ukrainian: Е́рік m (Érik)

See also

• Erich
• Erick
• Erik
• Eriq
• Erique

Anagrams

• RICE, Rice, cire, icer, rice

Catalan

Proper noun

Eric

1. a male given name, feminine equivalent Erica, equivalent to English Eric

German

Etymology

Variant of Erich, borrowed from English Eric or from French Éric.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Proper noun

Eric

1. a male given name

Swedish

Alternative forms

• Erik
• Jerker (dialectal)

Etymology

From Old Norse Eiríkr.

Proper noun

Eric c (genitive Erics)

1. a male given name from Old Norse