From Old English 'Eadwine' meaning rich friend or prosperous friend, borne by an early English king.
Edwin is an old English royal name whose roots go back to the Anglo-Saxon world. It comes from elements usually glossed as ead, meaning "wealth," "prosperity," or "blessed fortune," and wine, meaning "friend." The full sense is often given as "wealthy friend" or "prosperous friend," though in early Germanic naming these elements carried a broader sense of good fortune and loyalty.
The name was borne by Saint Edwin of Northumbria, a 7th-century king whose conversion to Christianity made him a major historical figure in early English history. Because of that royal and saintly background, Edwin endured through the centuries, especially after medieval interest in old English saints and kings revived. It became particularly familiar in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when many Anglo-Saxon names found renewed favor in Britain and America.
Edwin then developed a slightly scholarly or gentlemanly image, aided by notable bearers such as the astronomer Edwin Hubble and the actor Edwin Booth, one of the great tragedians of the American stage. In literature and culture, Edwin often appears as a solid, respectable, quietly intelligent sort of name. Over time its perception has shifted from fashionable to classic, then to somewhat vintage.
Today it carries a gentle Edward-adjacent dignity without being as common as Edward or Edmund. There is something appealingly steady about Edwin: it suggests civility, seriousness, and old-rooted grace, while the friendly softness of its ending keeps it from sounding severe.