Edison
- Pronunciation
- [E-di-son]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Son Of Edward
- Origin
- English
About the Name Edison
Edison is an English surname meaning "son of Edward," itself built on the Old English elements for "wealth" and "guardian." Long carried as a family name — and powerfully tied to the spirit of invention and ingenuity through its famous surname use — Edison has crossed over into a first name that feels both heritage-rich and forward-looking, blending an old patronymic root with bright, inventive modern associations that give it real character.
The three syllables, E-di-son, give it a bright, balanced rhythm, and its -son ending fits squarely within the popular fashion for surname-style boys' names. The name reads as smart and distinctive, with the friendly nickname Eddy keeping it warm and usable in daily life. It carries a sense of intelligence and creativity without feeling overly weighty, an appealing balance for a modern boys' name with deep surname roots.
Edison first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2006 and reached its peak in 2018 at rank #538, ranking #827 in 2024, with 6,187 top-1000 births in total. A recorded variant is Eddy. That nearly two-decade run with a mid-2010s high marks Edison as a steadily favored modern surname name, one that has held a consistent place on the chart while quietly gaining broader appeal among parents who like names with both heritage and a bright, inventive spirit.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Edison
US Popularity History (2006–2025)
Annual US births named Edison by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2018 with 522 boys named Edison (boy rank #538 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #870 for boys (276 US births). That's 332 places below its 2018 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 Edison 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 Edison the strongest states are North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | #218 | 25 |
| 2 | Minnesota | #301 | 203 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | #331 | 163 |
| 4 | Nebraska | #357 | 36 |
| 5 | Iowa | #436 | 54 |
| 6 | Utah | #438 | 68 |
| 7 | Michigan | #441 | 191 |
| 8 | Kansas | #489 | 27 |
| 9 | Missouri | #499 | 88 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | #522 | 61 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #824 | 271 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | #801 | 89 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #755 | 75 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #753 | 43 |
| 5 | Georgia | #729 | 72 |
| 6 | Florida | #729 | 187 |
| 7 | South Carolina | #692 | 22 |
| 8 | Virginia | #684 | 83 |
| 9 | Illinois | #682 | 130 |
| 10 | Colorado | #678 | 67 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Edison in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eddy | Abbreviation Of Names Beginning With Ed- Like Edward And Edmond. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Edison?
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 Edison to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Edison against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).