Edison
A masculine name derived from the Old English elements "Ead" (rich) and "wine" (friend).
Name Census estimates that about 9,966 living Americans carry the first name Edison. It is a predominantly male name (98.3% of registrations). The average person named Edison today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Edison births was 2018 (554 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Edison. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Edison with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Edison is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 216 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
10.0K
~ 1 in 34,392 Americans
Peak year
2018
554 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#827
Tracked since 1891
Census
Edison in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,544 people with the first name Edison, which placed it at #2,257 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,257
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,544 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
40.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Edison
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edison is Hispanic at 40.8%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Edison described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Edison at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino40.8% · 4,709
- White29.9% · 3,455
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.2% · 1,983
- Black or African American6.3% · 733
- Two or more races3.3% · 381
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 283
Gender
Gender distribution for Edison
Edison leans heavily male at 98.3% of total registrations, but 216 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Edison as a male name
- Ranked #827 in 2024
- 300 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (522 births)
Edison as a female name
- Ranked #10,473 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Edison leans strongly male. 11,355 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 192 female bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Edison: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Edison from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,068 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Edison remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Edison by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Edison during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Edisons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Edison, while Idaho, Mississippi, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 192 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Edison
The name Edison is an English surname that has been adopted as a masculine given name. It originated as an English patronymic surname derived from the given name Edisson, which was a medieval English form of the name Adam. The name Adam ultimately derives from the Hebrew word for "man" or "earth".
The name Edison first emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, as a variant spelling of the name Adam. It was likely influenced by the similar-sounding Old English name Æddisc, meaning "wealthy" or "prosperous". Over time, the name evolved into various spellings such as Edisoune, Edisson, and eventually Edison.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Edison can be found in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, which documented landowners in England. The rolls mention an individual named Edissone de Haleburn, indicating the name's use as a surname during that period.
While there are no known historical figures named Edison from ancient times or religious texts, the name gained significant recognition in the 19th and 20th centuries due to the renowned American inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). Edison was a prolific inventor whose contributions include the practical incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera.
Another notable individual named Edison was the British actor and filmmaker Edison Marshall (1894-1967), who directed several films in the 1920s and 1930s.
In the world of sports, Edison Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), better known as Pelé, was a legendary Brazilian footballer widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
The name Edison has also been used in literature, with the character Edison Carter appearing in the cyberpunk novel and television series "Max Headroom" by Spike Jonze and Michael Gottlieb.
Additionally, the American composer and lyricist Edison Ray Luthy (1933-2009) made significant contributions to musical theater, including collaborations with Carol Hall and John Denver.
People
Edison + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Edison as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Edison: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Edison?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,966 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Edison going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 34,392 US residents.
Is Edison a common name?
We classify Edison as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,460 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Edison most popular?
The single biggest year for Edison was 2018, when 554 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Edison is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Edison in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,544 people with the name Edison, or 3.82 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,257 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Edison in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Edison?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Edison leans strongly male. 11,355 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 192 female bearers (1.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Edison?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edison is Hispanic at 40.8%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Edison most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Edison in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.8% (4,709 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Edison in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Edison a male name?
Yes, 98.3% of people registered as Edison in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Edison still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Edison in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Edison can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Edison?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.