Eider
Masculine · “Beautiful" in Basque”
Eider is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 742 boys against 7 girls since 1880.
Eider is a name with two honest roads behind it: in the Basque Country it has long been given as a first name, tied to the Basque word *eder*, "beautiful"; in English the same five letters name the sea duck whose down fills an eiderdown quilt. It is short, ends on the same soft *-er* that Asher and Archer end on, and in the United States it is still very much at the beginning of its story.
How old is the name Eider?
Eider first appears in US birth records in 2017 — 8 years ago. Eider is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Eiders are still in diapers. About 700 people named Eider are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eider most popular?
Eider peaked in 2024, reaching #1026 nationally. Today it ranks #1064, 38 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Eider appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From eder (Basque, "beautiful") to Eider
The story of Eider
The Basque line is the one that gives Eider its life as a personal name: it belongs to the body of Basque names drawn from ordinary Basque words, in this case *eder*, "beautiful", and it is used in the Basque Country for girls. The English line is older in print but not a name at all — eider is the duck of Iceland, Scandinavia and the far North Atlantic coasts, a word Old Norse handed to English along with the quilts stuffed with its down. Northern Germany adds a third, unrelated Eider: the river that runs to the North Sea and once marked a political border. In American records the name appears only recently, and mainly for boys, with Texas, California and New York leading — which fits a name arriving through Spanish-speaking and Basque-connected families rather than through the English word.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Beautiful" in Basque — or the northern sea duck, depending on which road you follow
As a Basque given name, Eider is connected to *eder*, "beautiful, handsome", and is registered there as a name for girls. As an English word, eider is the sea duck of northern coasts, borrowed from Old Norse *æðr* through Icelandic, and the source of "eiderdown". There is also the river Eider in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. The two lines are genuinely separate; nothing forces a choice between them.
How the name formed
- ederBasque, "beautiful"
- Eider
Related forms: Eider · Eider · Eder
Pronouncing Eider
EYE-der
EYE-der is what most English speakers will reach for, since it matches the bird. In Basque and Spanish it comes out closer to AY-der, with the first syllable like the "ay" in "say" and a light tapped r. Both are correct for their language; whichever you use at home, expect to supply it once when introducing the name.
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
- 2017
- Most boys named
- 2024217 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1026reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −6.0%204 in 2025, from 217
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.
Eider in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eider in Basque — same name
- Eider in Spanish — same name
- Eder in Basque — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Eiders among us
people named Eider are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 8,373 born in 2025 was named Eider
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Eider
- #1064
- Eider on the 2025 chart
- #703
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Eider went to 204 boys in 2025, but Eyder is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 227, which makes it the 703rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 361 places above the chart.
- Eider204
- Eyder23
About 1 boy in 7,525 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,373 for Eider 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
The Wendall test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Eider's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wendall climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wendall's path sketches the road Eider is walking now.
Eider is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Eider is headed
Eider is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 179% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Eider beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eider in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters, two syllables, nothing silent — most people can spell it after hearing it once.
- Already an established given name in the Basque Country, so it is not a coinage; it has a real linguistic home behind it.
- The -er ending sits comfortably beside names American ears already know, like Asher and Archer.
- Works in both English and Spanish mouths, with only a small shift in the first vowel.
- Gender runs two ways. In the Basque Country Eider is given to girls; in United States records it is overwhelmingly recorded for boys. Either child may meet someone who expects the other, most often people with a Basque or Spanish connection.
- Two pronunciations coexist — EYE-der and AY-der — and you will be the one who decides which the family uses and repeats it for teachers, doctors and coaches.
- In English, the word means a duck, and eiderdown quilts are named after it. Birdwatchers and crossword solvers will notice; most people will not.
- It is genuinely new here, so there is no ready-made nickname and no shared reference point. Some parents like that blankness; others find the constant explaining wearing.
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What they receive
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Eider
Masculine · #1064 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eiders are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Eider are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Eider?
- Eider is the most-used spelling in US records — 204 of the 227 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Eyder.
- How popular is the name Eider in 2025?
- Eider ranks #1064 among US boy names in 2025, with 204 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Eider?
- About 1 in every 8,373 US boys born in 2025 was named Eider — 204 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eider with classmates?
- Eider will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Eider
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Neo#1064 · Ismail#1064 · Ronnie#1064 · Alaric#1063 · Zakari#1060 · Henrik#1060 · Nixon#1060 · Billy#1068
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eider? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Eider and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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