Irwin

Where Irwin comes from

From a medieval given name Erwin, from Eoforwine, from Old English eofor (“boar”) + wine (“friend”), the latter of which is from Proto-West Germanic *wini.
— Wiktionary's entry for Irwin
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #363 among boys — 22 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1913
    Irwin Shaw born
    American writer
  3. 1926
    Irwin Rose born
    American biologist
  4. 1931
    Peak, #245
    468 babies named Irwin — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1938
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #368.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Irwin Rose · American biologist, 1926–2015
  • Irwin Shaw · American writer, 1913–1984
  • Irwin Keyes · American character actor, 1952–2015
  • Irwin Allen · film producer, 1916–1991
  • Irwin Winkler · American motion picture producer, motion picture director, screenwriter, born 1931

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.