Edwina
A feminine English name derived from the Old English "Ead" meaning "wealthy."
Name Census estimates that about 6,973 living Americans carry the first name Edwina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Edwina today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Edwina births was 1943 (364 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Edwina. 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 Edwina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.0K
~ 1 in 49,155 Americans
Peak year
1943
364 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,889
Tracked since 1881
Census
Edwina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,097 people with the first name Edwina, which placed it at #2,618 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
#2,618
National first-name rank
People counted
9.1K
9,097 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Edwina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edwina is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (32.3%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Edwina 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 Edwina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.4% · 4,490
- Black or African American32.3% · 2,934
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 633
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 585
- Two or more races3.3% · 302
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 153
Popularity
Edwina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Edwina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,802 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Edwina 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 Edwina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Edwinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Edwina, while Montana, Wisconsin, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 292 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Edwina
The name Edwina is derived from the Old English words "ead" meaning "rich or prosperous" and "wine" meaning "friend." It is the feminine form of the male name Edwin, which shares the same etymology. The name likely originated in the early medieval period among the Anglo-Saxon communities of Britain.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Edwina dates back to the 12th century. The Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, mentions an Edwina who held land in Gloucestershire.
Edwina emerged as a popular name among the British aristocracy in the 19th century. A notable figure was Edwina Cynthia Annette Cavendish, Countess of Longford (1900-1959), an English writer and activist known for her work in prison reform and her opposition to capital punishment.
Another historically significant Edwina was Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1901-1960). She was the last Vicereine of India and played a pivotal role in the transition of British India to independence in 1947. Edwina Mountbatten was also a noted humanitarian and served as the President of the St. John Ambulance Association.
In the realm of literature, Edwina Leapman (1916-2005) was a British author and journalist best known for her biographies of notable figures such as Ethel Smyth and Mary Shelley.
The name Edwina also found its way into the world of sports. Edwina Tops-Alexander (born 1974) is an Australian show jumper who has competed in several Olympic Games and won numerous international championships.
While not as common today as it once was, the name Edwina has a rich historical legacy spanning centuries, from its Anglo-Saxon origins to its association with prominent figures in various fields.
People
Edwina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Edwina 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
Edwina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Edwina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,973 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Edwina 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 49,155 US residents.
Is Edwina a common name?
We classify Edwina as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,457 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Edwina most popular?
The single biggest year for Edwina was 1943, when 364 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Edwina is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Edwina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,097 people with the name Edwina, or 3.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,618 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 Edwina 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 Edwina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Edwina appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,100 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Edwina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edwina is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (32.3%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Edwina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Edwina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (4,490 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 Edwina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Edwina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Edwina in the SSA data are female. 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 Edwina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Edwina 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 Edwina 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 people share the name Edwina?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.