Old English2 syllablesUnderstated
Meaning: rich friend; friend of fortune.
Edwin
| Origin | Old English — Eadwine, borne by the seventh-century king of Northumbria |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Rich friend, from ead (wealth, fortune) + wine (friend), the -win also in Baldwin and Godwin |
| Pronunciation | ED-win; the Scandinavian Edvin is ED-veen |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 — a familiar name for American boys in the first half of the twentieth century, now receded, and still ordinary in Central America |
| Variants | Eadwine, Edwyn, Edvin, Edwing |
| Nicknames | Ed, Eddie, Win |
| Famous bearer | Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., known to everyone as Buzz, the second man on the Moon |
History & meaning
Where his Anglo-Saxon cousins were given spears and shields, Edwin was given a friend. Old English wine is exactly that, a companion or ally, and it turns up all over the period in Baldwin, Godwin and Goodwin. Eadwine, the king of Northumbria who ruled from about 616 to 633, was the most powerful ruler in Britain in his lifetime and the first Northumbrian king to be baptised, at York on Easter Day in 627. Bede tells the story of the council where his advisers debated the new faith, and where one of them compared a human life to a sparrow that flies through a lighted hall in winter, in at one door and out at the other. Edwin was killed at Hatfield Chase in 633 and afterwards venerated as a saint. The claim that Edinburgh is named for him is folk etymology, pleasing but wrong; the rock was Din Eidyn before he existed.
Like most pre-Conquest names it went dormant for centuries and returned on the back of antiquarian enthusiasm in the eighteenth and nineteenth. Dickens was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood when he died in 1870, leaving the plot permanently unresolved. America took the name up wholeheartedly for two or three generations, then let it drift, while Spanish-speaking families in Guatemala, Honduras and the United States kept it in everyday circulation, which is where a large share of today's Edwins come from.
Why parents choose it
It is the mildest of the ead names, and that is the appeal. Nobody has to ask how it is spelled, nobody stumbles over it, and it sounds like a person rather than a statement. Win is an unexpectedly good short form, and Ed remains the most unpretentious nickname in English.
Middle names for Edwin
Edwin ends on a light, unstressed beat, so a middle with some body underneath it works best: Edwin Marcus, Edwin Cole, Edwin Rafael, Edwin Blake. See the middle names guide for pairing a two-syllable first name with a surname of your own length.
Famous Edwins
Edwin Hubble established in the 1920s that the universe extends far beyond our own galaxy and is expanding. Edwin Booth was the finest American Hamlet of the nineteenth century. Edwin Starr recorded War for Motown in 1970, and Edwin Moses went nearly ten years without losing a 400 metre hurdles race, taking Olympic gold in 1976 and 1984.
Consider instead
Edmund is the same construction with far more weight and a literary history. Edward is the family member that stayed popular for a thousand years. Winston keeps the win sound and swaps the mildness for something considerably more emphatic.