9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Erika vs Ava

How Erika and Ava compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Erika

Female · Romanian

Meaning: Ruler Forever

Ava

Female · English

Meaning: Variant Of Medieval Given Names Avis And Aveline

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Erika (girls) vs Ava (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Erika Ava
Peak year (most US births) 1990 — 4,569 girls 2007 — 18,053 girls
Peak rank #74 #4
Most recent rank (2019) #903 (294 births) #11 (7,732 births)
Total US births since 1880 82,150 323,669
Last 10 years (2010–2019) 4,446 125,221

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Ava reached 18,053 US births in 2007 — 13,484 more than Erika's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Erika births Ava births
2001 Ava 2,230 2,539

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Erika — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Nevada #455 19
2 Utah #645 18
3 Florida #722 190
4 Minnesota #735 41
5 Washington #740 73

Ava — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Mississippi #1 1,585
2 Georgia #2 4,911
3 Alabama #2 2,308
4 South Carolina #3 2,038
5 North Carolina #3 4,560

Want a different comparison?

Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →