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Erling

#4,290 in 2025Boys' name

Nobleman, through Erlingr

Erling has been given to 1,402 babies in the U.S. since 1908. In 2025 it ranked #4,290 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 54 recorded.

Babies named Erling, 2025

1 in 138,000

Erling over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Erling: meaning, origin, and history

Nobleman, through Erlingr

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Erling means

Erling belongs to the name family reached through Erling → Erlingr. Its meaning is “nobleman”.

Origin, language, and formation

Erling is used in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.

Erling comes through Old Norse Erlingr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Erlingr.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,402 boys were recorded with the name Erling between 1908 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 54 in 2023; its best national rank was #672 in 1913.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #12,620 in 2020 to #4,290 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Erling?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 138,000
24 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 71,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,290
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
95,747 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Erling sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 95,747 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Erling. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Erlings were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Erling was born before 1930 — so the typical Erling is around 95 today.

Median birth year
1930
About 95 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
26.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
12.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
322
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 26.0% of all recorded uses (365).

Is Erling rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,364
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+8,330
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
44.4%
Peak was 2023 (54)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
52.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#672
1913

Spellings of Erling

Erling is not the most common spelling — Irving is, with 24.5% against Erling's 0.77%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Erling is used

Across 1910–2025, Erling was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 4,348 boys, against 1 in 136,806 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

023 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 4,348
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 12,500
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  4. 4Washington1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Iowa1 in —
  7. 7Illinois1 in —
  8. 8New Jersey1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Erling has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Erling around the world

Where Erling ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2022–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024
  • France
    2023–2025
    #6,118
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #126
    in 2025

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Norway. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB data under CC BY 4.0.

Erling by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,290
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 8,330
Best rank ever
#672
1913
Peak year
2023
54 that year
First recorded
1908
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,402
Count in 2025
24

Names similar to Erling

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ErlinHardingManningErlandLoringMikingErvingStarlingErleStirlingKiplingAkingEwingReddingHenningFlemingBlessingMykingLansingChanningJakingEdwingIrvingFielding

Sibling names for Erling

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Erling

Top names of 2023, Erling's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1913Boys' names starting with E