Ada

Like many very short names, Ada comes from more than one original source. It is considered to be a short version or nickname for several names, including Adelaide, Adele, and Alexandra--pretty much any name that has an 'A' and a 'D' and more than one syllable. In other cases it is considered to be essentially the same name as the biblical name Adah (which means "adornment" in Hebrew.) Ada was a popular name in the 19th century, and although that popularity continued into the early 20th century, it declined steadily. Ada finally disappeared entirely from the U.S. top 1000 names after the 1970's. The name began to make a comeback in 2004, and it will be interesting to see if it begins to regain its former popularity. Relatively speaking, Ada is not an "old" name--it only began to be widely used as a name in its own right in the late 18th century, but many of us perceive it as being an old name, because of knowing or having known an Ada from an earlier generation. Over the next few decades we will find out if Ada is to be a "new classic" name, or simply an occasionally remembered trend from earlier times.