Ada

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Ida in US United States, DK Denmark, NO Norway and 10 more, אידה in IL Israel, PL Poland, UA Ukraine, Eda in TR Türkiye and Aidah in MY Malaysia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ada is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name519K records spelled Ada8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Argentina, Brazil, United States, Peru

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Aďa, Ãda, Adä, Áďa, Adã

• Turkish given name131K records spelled Ada10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, Cyprus, United Kingdom

  Also written Adaköy, Ostrov, Adã, Adakoy, Aďa

• Polish given name57K records spelled Ada64 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Croatia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Ukrainian

  Also written Ада, Áďa, Эйда, Aďa, Áda

• Finnish given name25K records spelled Ada5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

  Also written Ädä, Adä

• a separate given name21K records spelled Ada5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Italy

  Also written Adá, Äda, Adä, Adā

86 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ada is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Ghana: town at the mouth of the Volta River.

  as a name·African Names

• Teutonic or Latin: happy; of noble birth.

  as a name·African Names

• In English, Initialism of adenosine deaminase, the enzyme that specifically affects RNA. See ADAR.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Spanish, Adah (Biblical figure)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Portuguese, Adah (wife of Lamech)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ada Lovelaceb. 1815GBEnglish mathematician (1815–1852)
• Ada Smithb. 1894USAmerican entertainer (1894-1984)
• Ada Carrascob. 1912MXMexican actress (1912–1994)
• Phyllis Dillerb. 1917USnot in their usual nameAmerican stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist (1917–2012)
• Ada Louise Huxtableb. 1921USAmerican architecture writer (1921–2013)
• Zoe Caldwellb. 1933AUnot in their usual nameAustralian actress (1933–2020)
• Ada Rohovtsevab. 1937UASoviet and Ukrainian actress
• Ada Yonathb. 1939ILIsraeli chemist
• Ada Kokb. 1947NLDutch swimmer (born 1947)
• Ada Hegerbergb. 1995NONorwegian footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,516 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ada?

We estimate roughly 227 thousand people bear Ada (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Ada have the most bearers?

Ada is most frequently recorded in Türkiye, where it is most often spelled eda.

Where is Ada most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ada is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 187 people — even though Türkiye holds more of our records for it.

How common is Ada compared with other names?

In Türkiye, Ada is the 281st most common given name of 294,597 given names recorded there.

Is Ada a male or female name?

Ada is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ada mean?

Recorded meaning: Hebrew Adah: 'ornament, beauty'; also conflated with Germanic adal- 'noble lineage'