Edda
Feminine
Almost everything known about Norse mythology comes from two books called the Edda, and nobody is sure what the word means. Great-grandmother, poetics and the name of a farm have all been proposed and none has won.
How old is the name Edda?
Edda first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Edda alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 500 people named Edda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Edda most popular?
Edda peaked in 1895, reaching #1426 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,681 places below that high. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Edda
Snorri Sturluson wrote his Edda in Iceland around 1220 as a handbook for poets, explaining the mythological references that skaldic verse depended on, and in doing so he preserved a religion that had been abandoned two centuries earlier. A separate manuscript of older poems, found in 1643, was given the same name and is now called the Poetic Edda. Between them they are the reason anyone can name Odin's ravens or describe Ragnarok. The word itself is a puzzle: it appears once in the poems meaning a great-grandmother, which fits a book of ancient lore; it might come from the word for poetry; or it might mean the book of Oddi, the farm where Snorri was fostered. Three good explanations and no way to choose.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The word Edda names the two medieval Icelandic collections that preserve Norse mythology, and its meaning is disputed: a poem in the Poetic Edda uses it for a great-grandmother, it may derive from odr, poetry, or from Oddi, the farm where Snorri Sturluson was raised. As a German and Italian given name Edda is a short form of names beginning with Ed-. The American peak is 1895.
Pronouncing Edda
ED-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is said the same way in German, Italian and Icelandic.
Nicknames for Edda
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 195016 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1426reached in 1895
- Change vs 2023
- −35.7%9 in 2025, from 14
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Edda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Edda in German — same name
- Edda in Italian — same name
- Edda in Icelandic — same name
Eddas among us
people named Edda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Edda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Edda
- #10107
- Edda on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Edda went to 9 girls in 2025, but Eda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 929th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,178 places above the chart.
- Eda22
- Edda9
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Edda itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Edda sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Edda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Edda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, nothing silent.
- It is a current name in Germany, Italy and Iceland.
- The literary association is unusually deep.
- Its meaning is genuinely unsettled.
- Americans will hear it as Etta or a clip of Edith.
- The 1895 peak places it very early in the records.
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Edda
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eddas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Edda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Edda?
- Edda is one of 2 recorded spellings. Eda is the more common one — 22 births in 2025 against 9 for Edda.
- How popular is the name Edda in 2025?
- Edda ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Edda?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Edda — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Edda with classmates?
- Edda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Edda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Edda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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