Edgar
- Pronunciation
- [Ed-gar]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Lucky Spearman
- Origin
- Anglo
About the Name Edgar
Edgar descends from the Old English Eadgar, composed of ead (wealth, prosperity) and gar (spear) — yielding "wealthy spearman" or "prosperous warrior." The name has been used continuously in English-speaking countries since the medieval period, anchored by Edgar the Peaceful (943–975 CE), the Anglo-Saxon king of England 959–975 CE.
Notable bearers include American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849, the iconic American writer whose works including The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher made him one of the foundational figures of American Gothic literature, mystery fiction, and short-story craft); French painter Edgar Degas (1834–1917, the iconic French Impressionist painter known for his ballet dancers and Parisian scenes); and contemporary American basketball player Edgar Sosa.
Edgar held a US top-200 boys' rank from 1880 through 2010 — over thirteen decades of continuous American popularity, anchored partly by Anglo-Saxon naming heritage and partly by Spanish-American adoption. The name has been driven in recent decades primarily by Spanish-language naming influence. The name's appeal is its layered Old English-Saxon-historical pedigree combined with two firm syllables — the in-built royal-historical register, the strong Edgar Allan Poe American literary cultural anchor, and tonal versatility from classical to contemporary registers. The name reads as both classical-Anglo-Saxon and contemporary American. Common nicknames Ed (the dominant short form, casual and adult), Eddie, Eddy, Gar, and the rare Edgi each carry distinct registers; international forms include Édgar (Spanish original, with accent), Edgardo (Italian), Edgardo (Spanish elaborate), and the original Old English Eadgar.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Edgar
US Popularity History (1880–2025)
Annual US births named Edgar by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2005 with 2,453 boys named Edgar (boy rank #168 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #486 for boys (617 US births). That's 318 places below its 2005 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Edgar Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Edgar the strongest states are Texas, California, Arizona.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #213 | 1,826 |
| 2 | California | #228 | 1,713 |
| 3 | Arizona | #229 | 342 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #247 | 66 |
| 5 | Nevada | #289 | 73 |
| 6 | Washington | #349 | 204 |
| 7 | Nebraska | #363 | 35 |
| 8 | Idaho | #369 | 24 |
| 9 | Kansas | #378 | 94 |
| 10 | Colorado | #393 | 142 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio | #914 | 51 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | #809 | 68 |
| 3 | Missouri | #768 | 51 |
| 4 | Michigan | #766 | 75 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #738 | 32 |
| 6 | Indiana | #706 | 80 |
| 7 | Kentucky | #651 | 22 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | #642 | 67 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #641 | 51 |
| 10 | New York | #621 | 222 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Edgar in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ed | Abbreviation Of Names Beginning With Ed- Like Edward And Edmond. | Male | English |
| Eddie | Abbreviation Of Names Beginning With Ed- Like Edward And Edmond. | Male | English |
| Eddy | Abbreviation Of Names Beginning With Ed- Like Edward And Edmond. | Male | English |
| Ned | Nickname For Edward. | Male | English |
| Ted | Abbreviation Of Theodore. | Male | English |
Famous People Named Edgar
3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Edgar.
- Edgar Allan Poe — Poet (1809)
- Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer, well-known for the popular character of ‘Tarzan’.
- Edgar Savisaar is a politician who hails from Estonia and has been its prime minister.
Looking for names like Edgar?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Edgar to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Edgar against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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