Ada
2025 SSA
Below 5 births
About Ada
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 for girls#219 US
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 for boys
Used predominantly (and in many countries, nearly exclusively) as a feminine name, Ada is a unisex choice in Turkey, where it comes from the Turkish word for "island". In Nigeria, it is also used as a masculine name, deriving from the Idoma language in which it means "father".
Pronounced AY-duh.
As of October 2026, Ada ranked #219 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #33 in 1880, Nameberry popularity #79.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · girls | Births · girls | US rank · boys | Births · boys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #374 | 871 | — | 0 |
| 2015 | #356 | 921 | — | 0 |
| 2016 | #345 | 968 | — | 0 |
| 2017 | #320 | 1,019 | — | 0 |
| 2018 | #251 | 1,302 | — | 0 |
| 2019 | #208 | 1,467 | — | 0 |
| 2020 | #185 | 1,560 | — | 0 |
| 2021 | #180 | 1,648 | — | 0 |
| 2022 | #181 | 1,656 | — | 0 |
| 2023 | #178 | 1,651 | — | 0 |
| 2024 | #193 | 1,563 | — | 0 |
| 2025 | #219 | 1,401 | — | 0 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Ada.
Ada on lists
Famous Adas
- Ada RehanGirl
American actress
- Ada AdiniGirl
stage name of Adele Chapman, American opera singer
- Ada Scott BrownGirl
American blues singer
- Ada Louise ComstockGirl
American women's education pioneer
- Ada Louise HuxtableGirl
American architectural critic
- (Augusta) Ada (Byron) KingGirl
Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron; pioneer of computer programming
- Ada MarisGirl
American actress
- Ada NegriGirl
Italian poet
- Ada NicodemouGirl
Australian actress
- Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia SmithGirl
American singer
- Ada YonathGirl
Israeli crystallographer & winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Ada OikariGirl
Finnish rhythmic gymnast
- Ada VoxGirl
stage name of Adam Saunders, American singer and drag queen
- Ada Benzine (b. 2017)Girl
daughter of American vlogger Craig Benzine and wife Chyna Pate
- Ada James Akins (b. 2018)Girl
daughter of Thomas Rhett (Akins)
Ada in pop culture
- Ada MonroeGirl
character in book/film "Cold Mountain"
- Ada WongGirl
character in the Resident Evil video games
- Ada McGrathGirl
main character in the 1993 film The Piano
- Ada HarrisGirl
main character in book/film "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris"
- Ada JaggsGirl
character in Mary Downing Hahn's "All The Lovely Bad Ones"
- Ada ClareGirl
character in "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens
- Adelaida "Ada" VeenGirl
main character in Vladimir Nabokov's "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle"
- Ada GillisGirl
main character in 1961 film "Ada," based on "Ada Dallas" by Wirt Williams
- Ada FifeGirl
beloved of Reuben Light (then sacrificed by him to his God, the dynamo) in the Eugene O'Neill play The Dynamo (1929)
- Ada ShelbyGirl
character on TV's "Peaky Blinders"
- Ada KeithGirl
character in the Mildred Keith series
- Ada Shufflebotham or SidebottomGirl
character played by British actor Roy Barraclough
- AdaGirl
character in the video game Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
- AdaGirl
an android in the comic book series Alex + Ada
- Ada CloverGirl
character in the BlazBlue video game series
- AdaGirl
robot companion in the game Fallout 4 Automatron DLC.
- Ada ThorneGirl
character on British TV series "Peaky Blinders"
- Ada VersailliusGirl
character in anime "Pandora Hearts"
- Ada SmithGirl
main character in book "The War That Saved My Life"
- "Ada"Girl
song by The National