Eddie
A diminutive English masculine name derived from the Old English name Edwin or Eadwine, meaning "prosperous friend".
Name Census estimates that about 131,623 living Americans carry the first name Eddie. It is a predominantly male name (93.1% of registrations). The average person named Eddie today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eddie births was 1947 (4,715 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eddie. 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 Eddie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Eddie have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
132K
~ 1 in 2,604 Americans
Peak year
1947
4,715 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#941
Tracked since 1880
Census
Eddie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 109,395 people with the first name Eddie, which placed it at #515 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
#515
National first-name rank
People counted
109K
109,395 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
36.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eddie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eddie is White at 35.1%. The next largest groups are Black (34.2%) and Hispanic (23.7%). 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 Eddie 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 Eddie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.1% · 38,396
- Black or African American34.2% · 37,375
- Hispanic or Latino23.7% · 25,954
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 4,056
- Two or more races2.4% · 2,604
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,010
Gender
Gender distribution for Eddie
Eddie leans heavily male at 93.1% of total registrations, but 15,753 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Eddie as a male name
- Ranked #941 in 2024
- 243 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (4,457 births)
Eddie as a female name
- Ranked #9,705 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1922 (379 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eddie leans strongly male. 105,701 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 3,699 female bearers (3.4%).
Popularity
Eddie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eddie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 40,175 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eddie 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 Eddie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,526 | 220 | 1,746 |
| 1890s | 2,284 | 453 | 2,737 |
| 1900s | 3,695 | 800 | 4,495 |
| 1910s | 10,507 | 2,215 | 12,722 |
| 1920s | 16,921 | 3,521 | 20,442 |
| 1930s | 22,328 | 2,939 | 25,267 |
| 1940s | 34,806 | 2,645 | 37,451 |
| 1950s | 38,595 | 1,580 | 40,175 |
| 1960s | 30,575 | 681 | 31,256 |
| 1970s | 15,872 | 329 | 16,201 |
| 1980s | 12,005 | 190 | 12,195 |
| 1990s | 9,665 | 71 | 9,736 |
| 2000s | 7,108 | 34 | 7,142 |
| 2010s | 4,207 | 28 | 4,235 |
| 2020s | 1,485 | 47 | 1,532 |
Geography
Where Eddies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, California recorded the most babies named Eddie, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,260 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eddie
The name Eddie is a diminutive form of the name Edward, which originated from the Old English words "ead" meaning "prosperous" or "rich" and "weard" meaning "guard" or "protector." The name was first recorded in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 9th century AD.
Eddie is primarily an English name, but it has also been used in other cultures and languages. In some Germanic languages, such as German and Dutch, the name is spelled as "Eddy" or "Ede." In French, it is sometimes written as "Edouard" or "Édouard."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Edward can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which mentions King Edward the Elder (c. 870-924), who ruled over the Kingdom of Wessex and the Anglo-Saxon territories in England from 899 to 924. Another notable historical figure with the name Edward was Edward the Confessor (c. 1003-1066), the last Anglo-Saxon King of England before the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Throughout history, many notable individuals have borne the name Eddie or its variations. One of the earliest examples is Eddie the Atheling (c. 1016-1057), the son of King Edmund Ironside and a claimant to the English throne during the Norman Conquest. Another historical figure was Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973), an American fighter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient during World War I, who later became a successful businessman and race car driver.
Other famous individuals with the name Eddie include Eddie Murphy (born 1961), an American actor and comedian known for his roles in films such as "Beverly Hills Cop" and "The Nutty Professor;" Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020), a Dutch-American guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Van Halen; and Eddie Vedder (born 1964), an American singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Pearl Jam.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Eddie
People
Eddie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eddie 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
Eddie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eddie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 131,623 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eddie 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 2,604 US residents.
Is Eddie a common name?
We classify Eddie as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 227,332 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eddie most popular?
The single biggest year for Eddie was 1947, when 4,715 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eddie is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eddie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 109,395 people with the name Eddie, or 36.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #515 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 Eddie 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 Eddie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eddie leans strongly male. 105,701 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 3,699 female bearers (3.4%). 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 Eddie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eddie is White at 35.1%. The next largest groups are Black (34.2%) and Hispanic (23.7%). 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 Eddie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eddie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.1% (38,396 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 Eddie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eddie a male name?
Yes, 93.1% of people registered as Eddie 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 Eddie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eddie 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 Eddie 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 Eddie?
See how many people share the name Eddie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.