caitb's Personal Name List

A rare Welsh surname, believed to be of Cornish origin. This surname is made up of two elements. ‘Ed’ is not a shortened form of Edward, but derives from the ancient (Old English?) ‘ead’ meaning ‘prosperity’ and/or ‘happiness’. This also gave rise to names like Edmund (‘prosperity protector’), Edward, (meaning ‘prosperity guardian’) and Edwin (‘prosperity friend’). The second element, ‘vean’ or ‘vane’ means ‘little’ or ‘the younger’. The Cornish ‘byghan’ became mutated in the same way as the Welsh ‘bychan’ became ‘fychan’ (i.e. ‘vychan’) when added to a personal name, and performed the same service of distinguishing between father and son where they had the same name. In Wales, this ultimately led to the well-known surname Vaughan. Edevane and variants, therefore, would seem to have the sense ‘the younger happy one’ or ‘the younger prosperous one’.

Habitational name from Edmonstone, near Edinburgh, so named from the Old English personal name Ēadmund + tūn meaning "settlement".

Means "rich protection", from the Old English elements ead "wealth, fortune" and mund "protection". This was the name of two Anglo-Saxon kings of England. It was also borne by two saints, including a 9th-century king of East Anglia who, according to tradition, was shot to death with arrows after refusing to divide his Christian kingdom with an invading pagan Danish leader. This Old English name remained in use after the Norman Conquest (even being used by King Henry III for one of his sons), though it became less common after the 15th century.

Famous bearers of the name include the English poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), the German-Czech philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), the first person to climb Mount Everest.