Edwina
Feminine · “friend of fortune”
There is an Old English word inside Edwina that no longer exists anywhere else. Ead meant wealth, or fortune, or the good luck that comes with both. English lost it entirely, and it survives now only where it was frozen into names: Edward, Edgar, Edith, Edmund, Edwin.
How old is the name Edwina?
Edwina first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Edwina alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 8,300 people named Edwina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Edwina most popular?
Edwina peaked in 1943, reaching #379 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,538 places below that high. See the whole 1943 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eadwine to Edwina
The story of Edwina
Old English names were compounds, and a family would pass elements down rather than whole names: a father with ead in his name gave it to a son who took a different second half. Ead produced a long row of them, and because several of those men became kings and one became a saint, the names outlived the language they were made in. Edwin belonged to a seventh-century king of Northumbria; Edward to a saint and then to eight kings, which made it unloseable. The feminine Edwina is much later, built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by adding a Latin ending to a name that had never had one, the same way Georgina and Wilhelmina were made.
Meaning
friend of fortune
The feminine of Edwin, Old English Eadwine: ead, wealth or good fortune, with wine, a friend. Old English names were built by combining two such words, and the combinations did not have to make obvious sense — the elements were chosen partly to link a child to relatives who carried one of them.
How the name formed
- Eadwine
- Edwin
- Edwina
Related forms: Edwine · Edvina
Pronouncing Edwina
ed-WEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. ed-WY-nuh, with a long i, is heard occasionally and follows the spelling of Edwin rather than the usual saying of the feminine.
Nicknames for Edwina
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 1943364 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #379reached in 1943
- Change vs 2022
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
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.
Edwina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Edwine in German — same name
- Edvina in Italian — spelling variant
Edwinas among us
people named Edwina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Edwina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gilda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Edwina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gilda climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gilda's path sketches the road Edwina is walking now.
Edwina 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
Edwina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Edwina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Old English meaning with both elements traceable.
- Two very different short forms, so a child has a real choice.
- It has a masculine counterpart with an unbroken record of fourteen centuries.
- It is strongly represented among older generations and carries the middle of the last century clearly.
- Winnie and Eddie both belong to other names as well, so neither identifies it.
- Three syllables with the stress in the middle makes a long name in front of a long surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Edwina to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Edwina? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Edwina
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Edwinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,300 people named Edwina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Edwina in 2025?
- Edwina ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Edwina?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Edwina — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Edwina with classmates?
- Edwina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Edwina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Edwina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Edwina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle