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Edward

After lean years it's climbing back, given to more boys last year than at any point this century. A Germanic name at root, "rich guard": a keeper of good fortune.

Edward Pronunciation

Edward is pronounced ED-vahrt (/ˈɛdvart/).

Related names
Eduard
Alive in 2025
76,002
Newborns 2025
168
National rank
#146
Next name day
18 March
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What Edward means

Where Edward comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Edward comes from two old Germanic words. The first, "ead", means riches or prosperity. The second, "weard", means a guard or keeper. Joined together they were recorded with the sense "rich guard", the one set to watch over good fortune. The variant Eduard keeps the same two roots without altering them.

England gave the name much of its early standing. Edward the Confessor, king in the eleventh century, was canonized after his death. The name faded after the Norman conquest, then came back when Henry III named his heir Edward after the saint. Royal Edwards followed for centuries.

In Poland the name day of Edward falls on 13 October, the feast of that same confessor king. Open a school register in Kraków and an Edward is easy to find. The Polish gloss stays close to the old one: strażnik pomyślności, a guard of prosperity.

When Edward celebrates name day

Edward appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 18 March.

Next name day
18 March
Thursday in 2027
Next one in 144 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.

How many people are named Edward

1 in 281 men in Poland is named Edward. 76,002 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #146 among male names.

People with the name Edward 2019 → 2025
76,002 −21,083 since 2019
2020 95,245 −1,840
2021 90,571 −4,674
2022 86,096 −4,475
2023 82,405 −3,691
2024 79,225 −3,180
2025 76,002 −3,223

Edward's popularity over time

168 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #202 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2002. Still the #146 name among living men, even as it slips to #202 among newborns.

hover a bar to explore
168 newborns with the name Edward in 2025
national rank #202 that year

Where parents choose Edward

Edward is most popular in Masovian, 42% above the national average (207 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+27%) and Pomeranian (+17%). It is least common in Holy Cross and Subcarpathian, 69% and 45% below average respectively.

Chosen most
  • Masovian
    +42%
    1 in 1,711 babies
  • Greater Poland
    +27%
    1 in 1,922 babies
  • Pomeranian
    +17%
    1 in 2,075 babies
Chosen least
  • Holy Cross
    −69%
    1 in 7,919 babies
  • Subcarpathian
    −45%
    1 in 4,465 babies
  • Opole
    −37%
    1 in 3,841 babies

Edward as a middle name

Edward is a first name for 76,002 men in Poland and a middle name for another 68,561, a 53/47 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 42nd, between Artur (70,058) and Mirosław (68,158).

As a first name
76,002
As a middle name
68,561
first name 53% middle name 47%
Middle-name ranking men

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Eugeniusz #2