Ada
German or Turkish
"noble, nobility, or island"Ada Origin and Meaning
The name Ada is a girl's name of German origin meaning "noble, nobility, or island".
Ada is one of the classic baby names for girls that is suddenly super stylish again. A favorite at the end of the nineteenth century, Ada is an alternative to the over-popular Ava. Ada is also part of the trend toward simple, old-fashioned names beginning with a vowel, like Ivy and Ella.
Ada is derived from the German name Adelaide, which came from the ancient name Adalheidis. The root, adal, is a Germanic word meaning "noble." Ada can also be considered a variation of the biblical name Adah, pronounced AH-da, one of the first girls’ names mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
A worthy namesake is Ada Lovelace, mathematician daughter of the poet Lord Byron, who worked with Charles Babbage on the forerunners to the calculator and the computer. In his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Byron addresses her as "Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart."
Ada has a number of fictional references as well, appearing in Dickens's Bleak House and Nabokov's 1969 novel Ada; additional characters with the name were portrayed by Holly Hunter in The Piano and Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain.
Ada returned to the Top 1000 in 2004, after being off since 1992; by contrast, Ada was a Top 100 name in the 1880s.
The Turkish name Ada means "island" and is unrelated — though it makes an excellent option for parents looking for a name spanning two cultures.
Ada is derived from the German name Adelaide, which came from the ancient name Adalheidis. The root, adal, is a Germanic word meaning "noble." Ada can also be considered a variation of the biblical name Adah, pronounced AH-da, one of the first girls’ names mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
A worthy namesake is Ada Lovelace, mathematician daughter of the poet Lord Byron, who worked with Charles Babbage on the forerunners to the calculator and the computer. In his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Byron addresses her as "Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart."
Ada has a number of fictional references as well, appearing in Dickens's Bleak House and Nabokov's 1969 novel Ada; additional characters with the name were portrayed by Holly Hunter in The Piano and Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain.
Ada returned to the Top 1000 in 2004, after being off since 1992; by contrast, Ada was a Top 100 name in the 1880s.
The Turkish name Ada means "island" and is unrelated — though it makes an excellent option for parents looking for a name spanning two cultures.
# 181 in the US
Ada Rank in US Top 1000
# 50 on Nameberry
Ada Rank in Nameberry Top 1000
Ada Popularity
- 181US2022
- 50Nameberry2023
- 211Future2028
- 44England2021
- 52Scotland2022
- 48Ireland2022
- 57New Zealand2022
- 309Germany2016
- 16Norway2022
- 67Belgium2022
- 98Poland2022
- 15Turkey2022
20 Names Similar to Ada
These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Ada.
Famous People Named Ada
- Ada RehanAmerican actress
- Ada Adinistage name of Adele Chapman, American opera singer
- Ada Scott BrownAmerican blues singer
- Ada Louise ComstockAmerican women's education pioneer
- Ada Louise HuxtableAmerican architectural critic
- (Augusta) Ada (Byron) KingCountess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron; pioneer of computer programming
- Ada MarisAmerican actress
- Ada NegriItalian poet
- Ada NicodemouAustralian actress
- Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia SmithAmerican singer
- Ada YonathIsraeli crystallographer & winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Ada OikariFinnish rhythmic gymnast
- Ada Voxstage name of Adam Saunders, American singer and drag queen
- Ada Benzine (b. 2017)daughter of American vlogger Craig Benzine and wife Chyna Pate
- Ada James Akins (b. 2018)daughter of Thomas Rhett (Akins)
Ada in Pop Culture
- Ada Monroecharacter in book/film "Cold Mountain"
- Ada Wongcharacter in the Resident Evil video games
- Ada McGrathmain character in the 1993 film The Piano
- Ada Harrismain character in book/film "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris"
- Ada Jaggscharacter in Mary Downing Hahn's "All The Lovely Bad Ones"
- Ada Clarecharacter in "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens
- Adelaida "Ada" Veenmain character in Vladimir Nabokov's "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle"
- Ada Gillismain character in 1961 film "Ada," based on "Ada Dallas" by Wirt Williams
- Ada Fifebeloved of Reuben Light (then sacrificed by him to his God, the dynamo) in the Eugene O'Neill play The Dynamo (1929)
- Ada Shelbycharacter on TV's "Peaky Blinders"
- Ada Keithcharacter in the Mildred Keith series
- Ada Shufflebotham or Sidebottomcharacter played by British actor Roy Barraclough
- Adacharacter in the video game Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
- Adaan android in the comic book series Alex + Ada
- Ada Clovercharacter in the BlazBlue video game series
- Adarobot companion in the game Fallout 4 Automatron DLC.
- Ada Thornecharacter on British TV series "Peaky Blinders"
- Ada Versailliuscharacter in anime "Pandora Hearts"
- Ada Smithmain character in book "The War That Saved My Life"
- "Ada"song by The National
- ADA is code in Lepidoptera (the study of butterflies) for a specimen with yellow wings and a black body
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