Edna (given name)

Edna (Hebrew: עֶדְנָה‎‎) is a female given name originating from several languages. In Hebrew, it means "pleasure".^[1] Various women named Edna are referenced in the Old Testament apocryphal books Jubilees (where the wives of Enoch, Methuselah, and Terah are all so named) and Tobit. The name Edna may also be an Anglicized form of the Irish and Scottish name Eithne,^[2] meaning "kernel" in Gaelic.^[3] This was a very popular girl's name in the United States in the early 20th century, but has since become unfashionable. It is also a very rare surname. Edna, as derived from Hebrew, is closely related etymologically to the name Eden.

People with the given name Edna

• Edna Best (1900–1974), British actress
• Edna Doré (born 1922), British actress
• Edna Eicke (1919–1979), American illustrator
• Edna Ferber (1885–1968), American novelist
• Edna Iturralde, Ecuadorian author
• Edna F. Kelly (1906-1997), American politician
• Edna Madzongwe (born 1943), Zimbabwean politician
• Edna Manley (1900-1987), Jamaican sculptor, wife of Norman Manley
• Edna Purviance (1895-1958), American actress
• Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950), American poet and playwright
• Edna Stern (born 1977), Belgian-Israeli pianist

Fictional characters

• Edna Birch in the television series Emmerdale
• Dame Edna Everage
• Edna Garrett in the television series Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life
• Edna Krabappel in the television series The Simpsons
• Edna Mode in the animated movie The Incredibles
• Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's novel "The Awakening"
• Edna Spalding in the 1984 film Places in the Heart
• Edna Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray and subsequent adaptations as a stage musical and musical film
• Edna Gee, a fictional character in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from the 1970s.

References