Erkki

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Эркки in RU Russia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Erkki is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name309 records spelled Erkki2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, Sweden, United States

  Also written Èrkki

• Bulgarian given name116 records spelled Erkki12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian

  Also written Erki, Ерки

43 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Erkki is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Erkki är en finsk folklig form (äldst belagd 1864) av Eerik (→ Erik).

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Finnish form of ERIC (see also EERO ).

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

SE SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) — 22 years between 1999–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Erkki Karub. 1887FIFinnish filmmaker (1887–1935)
• Erkki Aaltonenb. 1910FIFinnish composer (1910–1990)
• Erkki Itkonenb. 1913FIFinnish linguist (1913–1992)
• Erkki Katajab. 1924FIFinnish pole vaulter (1924-1969)
• Erkki Tuomiojab. 1946FIFinnish politician (born 1946)
• Erkki Liikanenb. 1950FIFinnish politician and central banker
• Erkki Laineb. 1957FIFinnish ice hockey player (1957-2009)
• Erkki-Sven Tüürb. 1959EEEstonian composer (born 1959)
• Paavo Arhinmäkib. 1976FInot in their usual nameFinnish politician
• Petri Honkonenb. 1987FInot in their usual nameFinnish politician

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 42 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Erkki?

We estimate roughly 30 thousand people bear Erkki (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Erkki have the most bearers?

We estimate about 28 thousand people bear Erkki in Finland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled erkki.

Where is Erkki most common?

Erkki is densest in Finland, where the national register counts about 1 in 197 people carrying it.

How common is Erkki compared with other names?

In Finland, Erkki is the 36th most common given name of 51,554 given names recorded there.

Is Erkki a male or female name?

Erkki is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Erkki mean?

Recorded meaning: a male given name from Old Norse, variant of Eerik, Eerikki, Eero, or Erik, equivalent to Estonian Erki or English Eric