Edna - Origin and Meaning of the name

The girl name Edna [ 2 syll. e-dna, ed-na ] is pronounced as EHDNah ^KEY. Edna is used chiefly in the English, German, and Irish languages, and its origin is Hebrew and Celtic. Hebrew origin, English and German use: Biblical name derived from the elements 'ednah' meaning rejuvenation, pleasure ; 'eden' meaning delight, paradise. The name was first used in the Apocrypha texts as the name of the mother of Sarah. The first use of the given name in England was recorded in the 18th century; it was probably imported from the Irish Eithne, which is itself from the Gaelic element for 'kernel'.

In addition, Edna is a variant of the name Enya (English) in the English and Irish languages.

Edna is unusual as a baby name for girls. Its usage peaked in 1902 with 0.982% of baby girls being given the name Edna. Its ranking then was #13. The baby name has since fallen out of favor, and is today of infrequent use. Among all girl names in its group, Edna was nonetheless the most popular in 2007. Edna has predominantly been a girl name, though in the past century it has also been used for boys. In 1912, Edna as a girl name outnumbered its use as a boy name by 172 times.

Baby names that sound like Edna include Aideen (Irish), Edana (Latinized), Edwina (German), and Athina (Greek).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Edna: EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; D as in "dee (D.IY)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

A famous person named Edna is Actress Ellen Burstyn, born Edna Rae Gillooly, 7 December 1932, Detroit, Michigan.

Popularity Trend
for Edna
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Edna
in 2007