Holiday Calendar

National Erica Day

Next celebratedSaturday, January 2, 2027

Erica is not the heather. The plant genus is a Greek word for tree heather and the name is Old Norse by way of Eric, identical in English and unrelated in origin, so January 2 belongs to the people, not the flower.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJanuary 2
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Brands and individuals keep it in circulation.

No founder, establishing act or first observance record could be located for National Erica Day. It circulates as a dated name day that individuals and brands mark publicly on January 2.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

Erica trails at home and leads in England and Wales

Erica and Erika are not the same name, and the American record now puts the K in front. In the ten Social Security Administration files from 2016 onward, more girls were recorded as Erika than as Erica. National Erica Day belongs to the one in second place.

The lead is real, and it has not always been comfortable. In 2018 the gap between the two spellings came down to a single birth. No year through 2025 has come that close again.

England and Wales runs the other way. Erica has outnumbered Erika there in all seven annual lists from 2019 onward.

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ORIGINS

Erica Day history

INTRODUCTION

The first Erica in the American record turns up in 1909. Five girls, in a file that lists a name only when at least five babies of one sex are given it.

The name is much older than that, and it is not the plant. Etymonline keeps the two apart inside a single entry: Erica is the feminine form of Eric, while the plant genus is Modern Latin, from the Greek ereike for tree heather.

That mix-up is old, and it is easy to make. The two words are identical in English and unrelated in origin, one a personal name descended from Old Norse, the other a Greek word for a heather. Behind the Name dates the first use of Erica as a given name to the eighteenth century.

CHAPTER 01

Eighty years of climbing

From those five girls the name climbed for the better part of a century, inside a series that begins in 1880. Its biggest year is 1986. The file for that year counts 9,973 girls named Erica, and no other year in the series counts more.

By the 1980s it had become a mainstream American choice. Erica spent every year of that decade inside the American top fifty.

CHAPTER 02

The spelling that changed hands

Then the two spellings traded places. Erica had led Erika in every American file for forty-seven years running. That streak ended in 2016.

The last year Erika had been ahead was 1967. In 1968 the two finished exactly level.

CHAPTER 03

A day with no paperwork

National Erica Day sits on top of all of that with nothing behind it. No founder, no establishing act and no first observance can be located for the day. A Federal Register search returns no document that names it.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Erica Day

SPELLING

The rule is what lets Erica and Erika move in opposite directions.

The Office for National Statistics states the rule in its own notes: similar names with different spellings have been counted separately. That decision is what makes it possible to watch Erica and Erika move in opposite directions.

PEOPLE

The day lives on personal accounts, not letterheads

American Blossom Linens posted for the day on January 2, 2024, and a Sacramento notary named Erica posted for it a year later. That is the shape of the day's footprint, individual and commercial rather than institutional.

HERITAGE

The name has not missed a year since 1937

Erica has cleared the Social Security Administration's five-birth publication floor in every annual file from 1937 through 2025. That is eighty-nine consecutive years in which at least five American girls received the name.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Erica Day by the Numbers

213 to 156
Erika against Erica, US 2025 file
67 to 39
Erica against Erika, England and Wales 2025
231,613
US girls recorded as Erica since 1880
125,664
US girls recorded as Erika since 1880

TIMELINE

Timeline

The plant genus is published

Kew records the genus Erica as published in Linnaeus's Species Plantarum, a plant word with no connection to the personal name.

Erica reaches the American list

Five girls are recorded, the first time the spelling clears the Social Security Administration's five-birth publication threshold.

Erica Kane joins a new soap

All My Children debuts on January 5, with Susan Lucci cast as Erica Kane from the show's inception.

The biggest year in the file

American records count 9,973 girls named Erica, more than any other year in a series that begins in 1880.

Erika takes the lead

Erika outnumbers Erica in the American file for the first time since 1967, and leads in every file through 2025.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Erica Day

Merge the spellings and the lead disappears

Add every C spelling together against every K spelling across the same ten American files, and the C group leads in five of the years while the K group leads in the other five. The result holds only because the registers count exact spellings apart.

Most Erica species grow in one South African region

The South African National Biodiversity Institute calls the genus by far the largest in the Cape Floristic Region, made up of 842 accepted species, with almost 700 of them restricted to that region.

A missing year does not mean the name vanished

The American file lists a name only when at least five babies of one sex carry it, so Erica is absent from 41 of the 146 annual files, most recently 1936. Absence there means fewer than five, not none.

Two standard references disagree about what Eric means

Behind the Name reads the Old Norse Eiríkr as ever ruler, from a word meaning ever or always. Etymonline reads the same name as honored ruler, from a Proto-Germanic root for honor.

Erica held 31st place three years running

It ranked 31st in the American file in 1986, 1987 and 1988, its best position anywhere in the series. Ordinal and competition ranking agree on that number, so it does not depend on which convention you use.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Erica Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask your Erica how she spells it

The registers treat Erica, Erika and Ericka as three separate names, so there is no default spelling to fall back on. Check hers before you write the card.

LOOK

Look the name up in the national files

The Social Security Administration publishes its national name files back to 1880, one file for every year. Find her birth year and count how many others were recorded alongside her.

GROW

Grow the other Erica on a windowsill

Erica imbricata, one of the Cape heaths, has horticultural appeal and can be grown and planted in the garden, according to South Africa's biodiversity institute. A pot of one makes the point without the lecture.

FOLLOW

Follow the name back to its dictionary entry

Erica and Eric have separate dictionary entries, and the second is where the name actually starts. Read Behind the Name together and follow it back.

WATCH

Watch the soap that named a character Erica

All My Children put Susan Lucci in the part of Erica Kane from the beginning. She was first nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 1978 and finally won in 1999.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Erica Day?

1 / 8

In which year did Erika first outnumber Erica in the American name file after decades behind?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing on record, and a Federal Register search returns no document that names it.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources
8primary records
4independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Beyond the Top 1000 Names
Every American given name recorded five or more times a year since 1880.
View source
Office for National Statistics2026-07
Baby names for girls in England and Wales
Girls' first names registered in England and Wales, counted by exact spelling.
View source
National Records of Scotland2026-05
Babies' First Names, 2025
Every first forename registered in Scotland since 1974, with the methodology on spellings.
View source
South African National Biodiversity Institute
Erica imbricata, PlantZAfrica
How big the genus Erica is, and how much of it is Cape-only.
View source
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Erica Tourn. ex L., Plants of the World Online
The accepted genus record, its 1753 publication and its native range.
View source
Television Academy Foundation
All My Children Celebrates 40 Years in Pine Valley
The show's 1970 debut and Susan Lucci's long Daytime Emmy wait as Erica Kane.
View source
Federal Register
Federal Register document search API
Full text search across federal documents, including proclamations and notices.
View source
American Blossom Linens2024-01
It's National Erica Day
A brand marking the day publicly on 2 January 2024.
View source
Additional coverage
Online Etymology Dictionary
Erica
Separates the personal name from the plant genus inside one entry.
View source
Behind the Name
Eric
The ever ruler reading of the Old Norse Eiríkr, with its cited references.
View source
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