Errol
given name · Latin script
Meaning: in England from OE Eoforwulf, in Scotland from Errol, Perth; first attested Roger Euerolf 1327
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɛɹəl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Errol is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Africa than in any other country. In Guyana it is the 47th most common given name.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 2.3K(inferred from the name graph)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 5.4K
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 13K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- South Africa (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 412 (measured from records)
- 1 in 1.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈11,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Guyana
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
in England from OE Eoforwulf, in Scotland from Errol, Perth; first attested Roger Euerolf 1327
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Errol, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Errol counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZA South Africa | #679 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.4K | — | Errol | 75 |
| US United States | — | 9,033 | 1 in 37K | 9K | Errol | 412 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈8,600 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Errol | 94 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈3,100 est. | ≈1 in 21K | 3 | Errol | 179 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 14K | 4 | Errol | 151 |
| JM Jamaica | #56 | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Errol | 22 |
| GY Guyana | #47 | 649 | 1 in 1.2K | 649 | Errol | 6 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 548 | 1 in 9.3K | 548 | — | 1 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025; TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Errol is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Transferred use of the Scottish surname, which derives from a place name. It has been made famous by the film actor Errol Flynn (1909-59), noted for his ‘swashbuckling’ roles. He was born in Australia, but spent most of his career in Hollywood. It is now very popular as a Black name, influenced by such figures as the jazz pianist Erroll Garner. Variant: Erroll.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A male given name transferred from the surname, popularized by American Actor Errol Flynn.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, ) Erroll ['erol]: männl. Vom., der auf einen schottischen Familiennamen zu rückgeht, dem wiederum ein Ortsname zugrunde liegt.
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
Guerriero, nobile
as a nameIl grande libro dei nomi per bebè. Significato, origini, curiosità. Oltre 7000 nomi per bambine e bambini Significato,…
Trotamundos
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Errol Flynnb. 1909AUAustralian actor (1909–1959)
- Errol Barrowb. 1920BBBarbadian politician (1920-1987)
- Errol Johnb. 1924TTTrinidad and Tobago actor and playwright
- Errol Charlesb. 1941LCSaint Lucian politician
- Errol Le Cainb. 1941GBBritish animator and illustrator (1941-1989)
- Errol Brownb. 1943JMBritish singer and songwriter (1948–2015)
- Errol Muskb. 1946ZASouth African businessman (born 1946) of Dutch-British descent
- Errol Morrisb. 1948USAmerican filmmaker and writer (born 1948)
- Stu Ungarb. 1953USnot in their usual nameAmerican poker player (1953–1998)
- Ashley Williamsb. 1984GBnot in their usual nameWelsh association football player (born 1984)
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 51 sources across 32 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 9K | #2,628 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 649 | #130 |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 548 | #790 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 51 | #2,628 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 17 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1970 | 4 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 1984 | 3 | #305 |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2012 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1948 | 1 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2019 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001) | — | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | The Penguin Book of Baby Names (David Pickering) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Errol mean, and where does it come from?
- in England from OE Eoforwulf, in Scotland from Errol, Perth; first attested Roger Euerolf 1327 Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- Is Errol a male or female name?
- Errol 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.
- How do you pronounce Errol?
- A machine transcription gives /ɛɹəl/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Errol have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 11 thousand people named Errol in South Africa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled errol.
- Where is Errol most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Errol is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 1.2 thousand people — even though South Africa holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Errol?
- In the United States, the national register counted 9,033 people named Errol in 2020, about 1 in 37 thousand residents.
- How common is Errol compared with other names?
- In South Africa, Errol is the 679th most common given name of 189,620 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Errol?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/errolThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Errol” — the 679th most common given name in South Africa. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.