Edna

Hebrew
"rejuvenation, delight"

Edna Origin and Meaning

The name Edna is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "rejuvenation, delight".

Edna is one of those names that, until what it seemed like a few minutes ago, felt so terminally frumpy that no one could imagine a parent choosing it for an innocent modern baby girl. But with the great upswing in names honoring ancestral family members, several of them being other four-letter, e-ending names, we wouldn't be so sure.

Edna, which means delight, is a semi-biblical name--in the Apocrypha she is seen as a loving mother-- and was enormously popular in this country in the late nineteenth century, reaching as high as Number 11. It also relates to Eden--another, more contemporary sounding, option.

Three literary bearers of the name are Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna Ferber and Edna O'Brien, and to some the name might be identified with the campy character, Dame Edna Everage.

# 946 in the US

Edna Rank in US Top 1000

# 1170 on Nameberry

Edna Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Edna Popularity

Famous People Named Edna

  • Edna Ferber
    American novelist
  • Edna St. Vincent Millay
    American poet
  • (Olga) Edna Purviance
    American silent film actress; frequent Charlie Chaplin co,star
  • Edna O'Brien
    Irish novelist
  • (Edna) Annie Proulx
    American novelist
  • Edna May Oliver
    American character actress
  • Edna Mae "Deanna" Durbin
    Canadian,American actress and singer
  • Edna Staebler (born Cora Margaret Cress)
    Canadian journalist and cookbook author
  • Edna Rae Gillooly
    birth name of Ellen Burstyn, American actress
  • Edna Lyall
    pen name of English novelist Ada Ellen Bayly
  • Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat
    Kenyan distance runner
  • Edna Dore (born Edna Lillian Gorring)
    English actress
  • Edna Best
    English actress
  • (Flora) Edna White
    American trumpeter and bandleader
  • Edna Deakin
    American architect

Edna in Pop Culture

  • Edna Mode
    character in animated movie "The Incredibles"
  • Edna Turnblad
    character in movie and musical Hairspray
  • Edna Krabappel
    character on TV's "The Simpsons"
  • Edna Birch
    character on British soap "Emmerdale"
  • Edna Pontellier
    main character in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"
  • "Cinder Edna
    " children's book
  • Edna Poppy
    character in Barbara Kingsolver's "The Bean Trees"
  • Edna
    servant of the Birling Household in the play "An Inspector Calls"