Tracing the Eric Family Name

Arms linked to Herrick and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

The meaning behind Eric

Eric is an established spelling of the English surname Herrick. Its meaning, shared with Herrick, is “Army ruler”.

Before spelling was fixed, Herrick was also written Eric. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists. Related forms: Heyrick. In the 2010 US Census, 355 Americans gave Eric as their last name (rank 57,372). That is enough to place it in the top 100,000 American surnames. French civil records give 217 births under the name Eric from 1891 to 2000, peaking in 1961–1970.

For the full story, order the Eric surname pack.