Edna’s Notebook: Personalized Journal for Edna
Give Edna a notebook that's unmistakably hers. Edna's Notebook has her name in elegant script over a pink watercolor apple blossom cover.
- 160 lined pages
- 6" x 9" paperback
- Watercolor apple blossom cover with "Edna's Notebook" on the front
- Printed and shipped by Amazon
Where does the name Edna come from?
Edna means “pleasure” in Hebrew, Behind the Name explains, from a word meaning “to delight”. It appears in the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament Apocrypha as the wife of Raguel, and Wikipedia adds that she is the mother of Sarah and mother-in-law of Tobias. Wikipedia also says the name is etymologically related to Eden. Behind the Name notes that it only became popular in the second half of the 19th century, after it was used for the heroine of Augusta Jane Evans’s successful 1866 novel St. Elmo.
Other forms of Edna
Edna has no common nicknames in the sources, but it does have history. Wikipedia says the name has been used in English since the 1600s, when it was often spelled Ednah. In Ireland, Wikipedia adds, Edna has also served as an anglicized form of the Irish name Eithne, so some Irish Ednas share their name with an older Gaelic one.
Well-known Ednas
Edna St. Vincent Millay won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”, the first woman to win it. Edna Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel So Big (1924) and wrote Show Boat, Cimarron and Giant, which became a hit musical and two famous films. And Australian comedian Barry Humphries created Dame Edna Everage, the lilac-haired star known for her cat-eye glasses and her greeting “Hello, Possums!”.
Edna’s popularity
Edna was a turn-of-the-century favorite. US Social Security data has it 29th in the 1880s and at its best rank, 15th, in the 1900s. Its biggest decade by count was the 1920s, when more than 68,000 American girls were named Edna, though by then it had slipped to 35th. It fell to 118th in the 1940s and then left the top 200, and Behind the Name says it dropped off the American top 1,000 in 1992.
A few more things about Edna
Dame Edna came with her own vocabulary. Wikipedia says her favorite flower was the gladiolus, which she called “gladdies”, and her glasses were “face furniture”. She started out as a drab Melbourne housewife satirizing Australian suburbia, then grew ever more outlandish after performances in London in the 1960s.
Gift ideas with Edna in mind
- For a poet. Drafts and sonnets, in honor of Pulitzer winner Edna St. Vincent Millay.
- For a book club. Reading notes for fans of Show Boat and Giant author Edna Ferber.
- For an Aussie comedy fan. A notebook for anyone who greets friends with “Hello, Possums!”
- For a great-grandmother. Edna peaked around 1900, so it makes a lovely family keepsake.
A notebook for every Edna
Edna’s Notebook works just as well for a teenager as for a grandmother. It’s 6" x 9", which fits in most bags, with 160 lined pages and no printed layout to work around. Use it as a diary, a school notebook, a planner or a place to collect quotes and ideas. A name on the cover turns an everyday notebook into something personal.
Why choose a personalized notebook?
A plain notebook is useful. One with her name on it is a gift. Seeing “Edna’s Notebook” on the cover tells Edna it was chosen for her, not grabbed off a shelf, and that small touch is often what makes people keep a notebook going instead of abandoning it after a week.
Frequently asked questions
How big is Edna’s Notebook? 6" x 9", or about 15.2 x 22.9 cm. It’s a paperback with 160 lined pages inside.
Where do I buy it? Edna’s Notebook is available on Amazon, which prints each copy to order and looks after delivery and refunds.
Do you have other names? We do, hundreds of them. Browse all name notebooks or read how to find a name on our personalized name notebooks page.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Edna's Notebook is published by Black Stag Publishing.