Adah
Feminine · “adornment”
Adah is the first woman in the Bible whose name is recorded after Eve. She appears in the fourth chapter of Genesis, and the Hebrew means adornment.
How old is the name Adah?
Adah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Adah alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 2,200 people named Adah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adah most popular?
Adah peaked in 1883, reaching #277 nationally. Today it ranks #1818, 1,541 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From adah to Adah
The story of Adah
Two Adahs appear in Genesis: one is a wife of Lamech and the mother of Jabal and Jubal, the ancestors of herdsmen and musicians; the other is a wife of Esau. The name reached English through the Reformation and was a Puritan choice. It appears in nineteenth-century American registers alongside the Germanic Ada and peaked around 1885.
Meaning
adornment, ornament
From the Hebrew adah, 'adornment' or 'ornament', from a root meaning to pass by or to deck oneself. The final h in the English spelling represents the Hebrew letter he and distinguishes the name from the unrelated Germanic Ada.
How the name formed
- adah
- Adah
Related forms: Adah · Ada · Ada
Pronouncing Adah
AY-duh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Adah and Ada are said identically in English; Hebrew gives the first vowel a different quality.
Nicknames for Adah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2020121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #277reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- +18.3%110 in 2025, from 93
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Adah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adah in Hebrew — same name
- Ada in English — related form
- Ada in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Adahs among us
people named Adah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 14,612 born in 2025 was named Adah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Adah
- #1818
- Adah on the 2025 chart
- #216
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Adah went to 110 girls in 2025, but Ada and Adda are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 1,527, which makes it the 216th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,602 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,053 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,612 for Adah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Adah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Adah is headed
Adah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Adah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the earliest named women in the Hebrew Bible, and the mother of two cultural ancestors.
- The meaning is transparent and undisputed.
- Four letters, two syllables, and easy for a very young child to write.
- The h does no audible work and Ada is much the commoner spelling.
- The two names Ada and Adah have separate origins that English has merged.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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Adah
Feminine · #1818 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Adah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Adah?
- Adah is one of 3 recorded spellings. Ada is the more common one — 1,401 births in 2025 against 110 for Adah.
- How popular is the name Adah in 2025?
- Adah ranks #1818 among US girl names in 2025, with 110 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adah?
- About 1 in every 14,612 US girls born in 2025 was named Adah — 110 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adah with classmates?
- Adah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kailyn#1818 · Story#1818 · Winsley#1818 · Jaisley#1818 · Belinda#1818 · Lotus#1818 · Nailah#1818 · Saraya#1818
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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