Edem
An Old Testament name of Hebrew origin meaning "delight" or "pleasure".
Name Census estimates that about 102 living Americans carry the first name Edem. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Edem today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Edem births was 2022 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Edem. 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 Edem with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
102
~ 1 in 3,360,337 Americans
Peak year
2022
9 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,476
Tracked since 1992
Census
Edem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 405 people with the first name Edem, which placed it at #23,978 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
#23,978
National first-name rank
People counted
405
405 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Edem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edem is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are White (7.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Edem 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 Edem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.9% · 344
- White7.4% · 30
- Two or more races4.2% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Edem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Edem from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 41 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Edem remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Edem 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 Edem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Edem
The name Edem has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the biblical word "eden," which means "delight" or "paradise." It is believed to have first emerged in the ancient Middle East, particularly in the region of modern-day Israel and surrounding areas.
The earliest recorded reference to the name Edem can be found in the Book of Genesis, where it is used to describe the Garden of Eden, the paradisical dwelling place created by God for Adam and Eve. This association with the biblical paradise imbued the name with a sense of beauty, purity, and contentment.
In ancient Hebrew texts and traditions, Edem was sometimes used as a symbolic representation of the ideal state of existence, untainted by sin or suffering. It carried connotations of innocence, harmony, and divine favor.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Edem was a 6th-century BCE Hebrew scholar and scribe known as Edem ben Meshullam. He is credited with transcribing and preserving several ancient Hebrew manuscripts, ensuring their survival through the centuries.
During the Middle Ages, the name Edem gained popularity among Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East. Notable figures bearing this name include Edem Ezra (1092-1167), a renowned Spanish-Jewish philosopher and poet, and Edem ben Yaakov (1420-1490), a influential Talmudic scholar from Italy.
In the 17th century, Edem Hayyim (1635-1705), a prominent rabbi and kabbalist from Poland, made significant contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism and the interpretation of the Zohar, a seminal work of Kabbalah.
Another historical figure of note was Edem ben Manasseh (1604-1657), a Dutch-Jewish writer, philosopher, and advocate for the readmission of Jews to England, where they had been expelled since the 13th century.
In more recent times, the name Edem has been carried by individuals such as Edem Serhiy (1944-2010), a Ukrainian playwright and screenwriter, and Edem Kodjo (born 1938), a Togolese diplomat and former Prime Minister of Togo.
People
Edem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Edem 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
Edem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Edem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 102 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Edem 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 3,360,337 US residents.
Is Edem a common name?
We classify Edem as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 103 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Edem most popular?
The single biggest year for Edem was 2022, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Edem is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Edem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 405 people with the name Edem, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,978 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 Edem 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 Edem?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Edem leans strongly male. 333 people counted with this name were male (82.8%), compared with 69 female bearers (17.2%). 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 Edem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Edem is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are White (7.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Edem most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Edem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (344 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 Edem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Edem a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Edem 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 Edem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Edem 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 Edem 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 Edem?
See how many Americans are named Edem on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.