Edda
An Old Norse feminine name meaning "great-grandmother" or "ancestress".
Name Census estimates that about 388 living Americans carry the first name Edda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Edda today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Edda births was 1930 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Edda. 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 Edda with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
388
~ 1 in 883,387 Americans
Peak year
1930
22 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,681
Tracked since 1895
Census
Edda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,591 people with the first name Edda, which placed it at #8,935 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
#8,935
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,591 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Edda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edda is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (44.5%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Edda 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 Edda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.0% · 763
- Hispanic or Latino44.5% · 708
- Black or African American4.1% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 40
- Two or more races0.7% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Popularity
Edda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Edda from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 115 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1930s peak, Edda remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Edda 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 Edda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Eddas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Edda
The name Edda is of Old Norse origin and can be traced back to the Viking era in Scandinavia. It is believed to be derived from the Old Norse word "oddr," which means "point" or "edge." The name was likely associated with strength, sharpness, and bravery, qualities that were highly valued in Viking culture.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Edda is found in the "Poetic Edda," a collection of Old Norse anonymous poems compiled in the 13th century. The "Prose Edda," written by the Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson in the early 13th century, is another significant work that mentions the name.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Edda. One of the earliest recorded examples is Edda Ballí (1180-1236), an Icelandic poet and the first known female skald (a poet of the Old Norse tradition). Another prominent figure was Edda Mussolini (1910-1995), the eldest daughter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
In the field of literature, Edda Ziegler (1912-1986) was a German writer and translator known for her works on Norse mythology and Icelandic literature. Edda Göring (1938-2018), the daughter of Nazi leader Hermann Göring, also carried this name.
More recently, Edda Björgvinsdóttir (born 1976) is an Icelandic singer and songwriter who has gained international recognition for her unique blend of folk and electronic music.
While the name Edda has its roots in Old Norse culture, it has since spread to various parts of the world, particularly in European countries with Germanic or Scandinavian influences. The name continues to hold significance and intrigue due to its historical connections and associations with strength, wisdom, and literary traditions.
People
Edda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Edda 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
Edda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Edda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 388 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Edda 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 883,387 US residents.
Is Edda a common name?
We classify Edda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 723 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Edda most popular?
The single biggest year for Edda was 1930, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Edda is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Edda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,591 people with the name Edda, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,935 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 Edda 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 Edda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Edda appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,593 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Edda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edda is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (44.5%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Edda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Edda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (763 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 Edda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Edda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Edda 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 Edda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Edda 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 Edda 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 are called Edda?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.