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The first name 
Edwin

Edwin is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

Edwin – popular and common in the US!

The name Edwin 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, Edwin ranks 298. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 6 were named Edwin. In the entire USA, approximately 231,885 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Edwin. That is 0.07 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Edwin

What does the name 
Edwin mean?

The name Edwin means ‘rich friend’. It comes from the Old English words ‘ead’ for ‘rich, blessed’ and ‘ƿine’ for ‘friend’.

Edwin is a very old... name, and has been in use since at least the 6th century.

Edwin -
at home all over the USA, especially popular in Hawaii

Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Edwin. Because: There are men and boys named Edwin 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 Edwin 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 New York, where Edwin ranks on position 80. The greatest chance of meeting Edwin, however, is in Hawaii, where one in 338 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 695 men and boys and in Alaska, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 2,491 men and boys for their name before you once get Edwin as an answer.

Edwin has 5 letters 
and begins with an E

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 five letters, the name Edwin is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. 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.

Other names with 
E, d, w, i and n

If you take all the letters in the name Edwin – E, d, w, i and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Dewin or Wendi.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Edwin

If your name is Edwin 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...

This is how you spell the name Edwin

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Edwin, you can simply say:

Elephant

Dinosaur

Windmill

Igloo

Nut

This is how the name Edwin is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Edwin in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Edwin

Edwin

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Edwin

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Edwin is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

E
D
W
I
N

Have you ever waved the name Edwin

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
I
N

Beeping like crazy...

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. Edwin sounds like this: