A male name. Old English Eadmund, compound of ead ‘rich’, ‘happy’, and mund ‘protection’; the name of two English kings, Edmund the Magnificent (922?- 46),s. of Edward the Elder, and Edmund Ironside (981?—1016), and of two saints, St Edmund, King of the East Angles, martyred by the Danes in 870, and St Edmund Rich (1170?-124o), Archbishop of Canterbury. It was common in the 11th C and occurs in Domesday Book. Henry III owed special devotion to SS Edward and Edmund, and named two of his ss. after them, which probably helped these names to survive at a time when many Old English names went finally out of use. Edmund was often written in the French form Edmond in the later Middle Ages. It was less common after the 15th C, but continued to be used in certain families, e.g. Courtenay, Montagu, Mortimer, Despenser, Murray, Douglas. In the 17th C Edmund and Edward were often confused.

The Irish form of the name is Eamon.

Edmond, Edmondus Domesday Book 1086, Curia Regis Rolls 1199-1219, Hundred Rolls 1273, Feudal Aids 1316, Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Emond Lincs 1450.

EDMUND. In A. -S., Eadmund (‘happy protection’); the -ond form is Gallic. ‘One of our most English names, belonging to the king of East Anglia, ca. 840-70, who, as the first victim of the Danes, became the patron saint of Bury St. Edmund’s, and the subject of various legends,’ Yonge. Like Edgar and Edwin, it is much less used in C20 than in C19.