Edgar
Feminine · “rich spear”
Edgar is given to boys far more often — 157,214 boys against 705 girls since 1880. See Edgar as a boy name
Edgar is an Old English name that survived the Norman Conquest, went out of use, came back with the Victorians, and is now sustained in America largely by Spanish-speaking families. Its most consequential bearer is a king almost nobody has heard of whose coronation is still being copied.
How old is the name Edgar?
Edgar was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Edgar alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 400 people named Edgar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Edgar most popular?
Edgar peaked in 1880, reaching #836 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eadgar to Edgar
The story of Edgar
Edgar the Peaceable was crowned late — he had been king for fourteen years before the ceremony — and the service that was written for him, apparently by Dunstan, is the reason English coronations look the way they do. The order of it is essentially unchanged: the recognition, the oath, the anointing with oil under a canopy, the delivery of the regalia, the crowning, the enthroning, the homage. Handel's anthem written for a later coronation sets the same text Dunstan chose. Almost every English and British coronation since, including the most recent, has followed that shape, which makes it one of the oldest continuously used ceremonies in Europe. The other thing everyone reports about that day is what followed: a symbolic submission on the river at Chester, where other rulers of Britain are said to have rowed his boat.
Meaning
rich spear; prosperity-spear
Two Old English elements: a word meaning wealth or good fortune, and the word for a spear. Spear names were the largest family in old Germanic naming, because a spear was the one weapon every free man owned, and the compounds were compliments rather than descriptions.
How the name formed
- Eadgar
- Edgar
Related forms: Edgar · Edgard · Edgar · Edgar
Pronouncing Edgar
ED-gar
Two syllables with the stress at the front in English. Spanish speakers say ed-GAR with the weight at the back, and both are heard in American families — often within the same one.
Nicknames for Edgar
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 198821 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #836reached in 1880
- Change vs 2009
- −16.7%5 in 2011, from 6
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.
Edgar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Edgar in Spanish — same name
- Edgard in French — same name
- Edgar in Portuguese — same name
- Edgar in German — same name
Edgars among us
people named Edgar are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Edgar sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is spelled identically in English, Spanish, French and German.
- Ed and Eddie are both ready-made and need no explanation anywhere.
- The meaning is documented all the way back and has not shifted.
- English and Spanish stress it differently, so a bilingual family hears two versions of one name.
- The horror writer is a permanent association for English-speaking readers.
- It was recorded for daughters too in earlier decades, though very rarely.
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What they receive
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Edgar
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Edgars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Edgar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Edgar in 2025?
- Edgar is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Edgar with classmates?
- Edgar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Edgar? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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