Edward

Where the name comes from

• Old English
  prosperity-guard; guardian of riches
  Old English Ēadweard: ēad ‘riches, wealth, prosperity’ + weard ‘guard, guardian, ward’
  The earliest dated attestation in DMNES is Eadward/Edward, England, 966. Unusually for an Old English name it spread abroad: DMNES says it “can be found as far away as Iberia in the Middle Ages”, although its own attestation list has no Iberian record. Popular glosses such as “wealthy guardian” match the attested elements.

Edward across traditions

• English monarchy and Christian (Anglo-Saxon England). Eight medieval kings of England bore the name. One of them, Edward the Confessor, was the kingdom’s patron saint until 1348, and another 10th-century Edward was also a saint (DMNES). A 1656 writer credited the Confessor’s “Christian humility” with making the name usual “in all Estates” (Blount, quoted by etymonline).
• European. Medieval records show the name well beyond England: Edouart in France (1301), Edouard in Middle French (1415) and Walloon (1582), Latin Eduardo/Eduardum in Italy (1536), and Dutch Eduwaert (1599) (DMNES).
• English-language nicknames. Ted and Teddy are pet forms. Teddy is shared with Edmund and Theodore, and the British “teddy boy” (1954) is short for Edward (etymonline).
• United States (SSA). Combined births in the seven SSA decade tables: 577,824 boys. Peak decade: 1950s, at #23 (188,323 births). Later ranks: #29 (1960s), #40 (1970s), #57 (1980s), #86 (1990s), #131 (2000s), #158 (2010s).

Who carried it

• Edward the Confessor (born about 1002 – died January 5, 1066; king from 1042): Built Westminster Abbey and is buried there; declared a saint in 1161 by Pope Alexander III; patron saint of England until 1348.
• Kings of England named Edward (Middle Ages): DMNES counts eight medieval English kings of the name.

Forms in other languages

Ēadweard, Eadward, Edwardus, Eduardus, Edouard, Eduwaert, Ted, Teddy

Edward in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.