Edgar
Meaning
Old English, "wealthy spear"
Famously borne by Edgar Degas, chronicler of ballet dancers and racehorses caught mid-motion.
The story
Edgar comes from the Old English Eadgar, joining ead, wealth or fortune, with gar, a spear, so it reads as a prosperous or fortunate spear. It is deeply old: King Edgar the Peaceful united tenth-century England and was crowned in a ceremony that still shapes British coronations. Centuries later the name took a darker, brilliant turn with Edgar Allan Poe, the American master of the macabre and inventor of the detective story, which lends it a gothic glamour. Shakespeare gave it to the loyal, wronged son in King Lear. It also found a warm home among Latino families in the United States, where it was most common around the 2000s. Handsome, literary and quietly strong, Edgar hands a child a peaceful king, a haunting poet and a thousand years of history.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Edgar peaked in the 2000s.
Popularity in Brazil
43,814 people · the #619 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 4,630 · median age 42
Among people named Edgar living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,195 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Edgar
Most people given the name Edgar in the United States were born between 1970 and 2009. The Edgar you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Edgar deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Edgar truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Edgar fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Edgar · German Brazilian baby names · Names of great artists
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