Ambrosia
Feminine · “the food of the gods”
The Greek word is built out of a negative. Brotos is a mortal, a being who dies. The a in front cancels it. Ambrotos is the undying, and ambrosia is what the undying eat — a whole sentence about not dying, folded into four syllables.
How old is the name Ambrosia?
Ambrosia first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Ambrosia alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,600 people named Ambrosia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ambrosia most popular?
Ambrosia peaked in 1900, reaching #1723 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,194 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ambrotos to Ambrosia
The story of Ambrosia
In Homer the gods eat ambrosia and drink nectar, and both are treated less as menu items than as the substance of immortality itself: rubbed on a body to keep it from decaying, poured into a wound, used to preserve as much as to feed. The word passed into Latin unchanged and into English by the sixteenth century, where it came to mean anything deliciously good. The masculine form of the name has the longer record: Ambrose belonged to the fourth-century bishop of Milan and traveled as Ambrogio, Ambrosio and Ambroise. Ambrosia stayed closer to the word than to the saint, and is still as much a noun as a name.
Meaning
the food of the gods; literally, not mortal
From Greek ambrosia, the food of the immortals, formed from a-, not, and brotos, mortal. The same negating a- is at work in anonymous, atheist and amnesia. Nectar was the gods' drink; ambrosia was the food, and in Homer it is also an ointment.
How the name formed
- ambrotos
- ambrosia
- Ambrosius
- Ambrosia
Related forms: Ambrosia · Ambrosia · Ambrosia · Amvrosia
Pronouncing Ambrosia
am-BROH-zhuh
Four syllables written, three said: the last two run together into a single zhuh, the way they do in Asia and Persia. am-BROH-zee-uh is also heard and is closer to the Greek.
Nicknames for Ambrosia
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 198165 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1723reached in 1900
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
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.
Ambrosia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ambrosia in Spanish — same name
- Ambrosia in Italian — same name
- Ambrosia in Portuguese — same name
- Amvrosia in Greek — transliteration
Ambrosias among us
people named Ambrosia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Ambrosia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ambrosia 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
Ambrosia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ambrosia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning that is concrete and cheerful rather than abstract.
- It is already an English word, so the spelling needs no explanation.
- Three short forms that sound nothing like each other.
- A masculine counterpart with an unbroken record in four languages.
- In American English the word most often names a marshmallow and canned-fruit salad, and that will be the first association for many people.
- Ambrosia is also the botanical genus of ragweed, the plant behind late-summer hay fever.
- Four written syllables is a lot of name before a surname arrives; it will be shortened by others whether or not you shorten it.
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What they receive
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Ambrosia
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ambrosias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Ambrosia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ambrosia in 2025?
- Ambrosia ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ambrosia?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Ambrosia — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ambrosia with classmates?
- Ambrosia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ambrosia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ambrosia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ambrosia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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