The first name Edward means roughly ‘the keeper of the treasure’. The name is composed of the Old English words ‘ead’ for ‘inheritance, possession’ and ‘weard’ for ‘guardian’.
Edward is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The name Edward isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Edward ranks 161. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 14 were named Edward. In total, there are currently 1,228,591 people – children, adults and seniors – named Edward living in the United States, which is approximately 0.37 % of the entire population.
The first name Edward means roughly ‘the keeper of the treasure’. The name is composed of the Old English words ‘ead’ for ‘inheritance, possession’ and ‘weard’ for ‘guardian’.
Edward was a very popular name... for English kings and rulers. There have been eight kings called Edward on the English throne beginning with Edward I (1239–1307) to Edward VIII (1894–1972).
History tends to focus on the most famous and the best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Edward is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, the SmartGenius top ranking #8 has been hit more than once, although the last instance was some time ago, way back in the last century in 1923. But even though the peak of its popularity was many decades ago, the name Edward has been given to newborn boys every year since records began. Edward is a name of exceptional enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the 20th century.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Edward was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Edward. Because: There are men and boys named Edward in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, just 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Edward is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular male first names, for example in Pennsylvania, where Edward ranks on position 11. The greatest chance of meeting Edward, however, is in Rhode Island, where one in 65 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 135 men and boys and in Utah, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 396 men and boys for their name before you once get Edward as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter E is neither particularly common nor particularly rare as a first letter for boys' names: 3.8% of all common boys' names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D, while X, U and Q are the least common initials of boys' names.
With six letters, the name Edward is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that with 3.8%, E as the first letter in boys' names is almost as common as all 26 letters on average - and of all the boys' names that start with an E, Edward is the most common.
If your name is Edward and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Edward, you can simply say:
Elephant
Dinosaur
Windmill
Apple
Rocket
Dinosaur
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Edward
Edward
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
E
D
W
A
R
D
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
E
D
W
A
R
D
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Edward sounds like this:
