Edmund

Edmund means “rich protection,” from the Old English elements ead “wealth, fortune” and mund “protection.” It was the name of two Anglo-Saxon kings of England and of two saints, including a 9th-century king of East Anglia who, according to tradition, was killed by arrows after refusing to divide his Christian kingdom with an invading pagan Danish leader. The name survived after the Norman Conquest, and King Henry III even gave it to one of his sons, though it became less common after the 15th century. Notable bearers include the English poet Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), the German-Czech philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), and the New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary (1919–2008), the first person to climb Mount Everest.

Edmund rose from #981 to #924 for boys between 1996 and 1997. Its highest annual birth count came in 1923, with 1,145 births.