Ardath
Feminine
Ardath is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,326 girls against 22 boys since 1880.
Ardath is a field in a book that most Bibles do not contain. In the apocryphal second book of Esdras, Ezra is told to go into a field called Ardath, eat only flowers, and wait; he does, and has the vision that follows. The name appears once, means nothing anybody can recover, and belongs to no person at all.
How old is the name Ardath?
Ardath first appears in US birth records in 1899 — 126 years ago. The typical Ardath alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 200 people named Ardath are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ardath most popular?
Ardath peaked in 1905, reaching #872 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A field named once in the apocrypha to Ardath
Our story of Ardath
The name reached American families through a novel. A Victorian bestseller of 1889 took the word for its title and built a long romance around a poet who travels to an ancient city and back; the author was one of the most-read novelists of her generation, outsold most of her famous contemporaries, was despised by critics, and used the obscurity of the title deliberately. Names arrive this way constantly, and the pattern is recognizable in the record: a word appears from nowhere, rises for a decade or two, and falls away as the book is forgotten. What remains is a scattering of women named for a field in a vision nobody reads.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The word occurs once, in a book that survives in Latin rather than in its original language, and it names a place rather than a person. Its meaning has never been established and the text gives no clue. As a personal name it is a borrowing from a single verse, and any reading offered for it is invented.
How the name formed
- A field named once in the apocrypha
- A book left out of most Bibles
- An 1889 novel taking the word as its title
- Ardath on American certificates for both sexes
Pronouncing Ardath
AR-dath
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the th said as in bath rather than as in bathe. The final consonant is the only part anybody hesitates over, and both readings are heard.
Nicknames for Ardath
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
- 1899
- Most girls named
- 192361 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #872reached in 1905
- Change vs 1965
- −16.7%5 in 1972, from 6
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.
Ardaths among us
people named Ardath are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ardath sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The sound is firm and easy to say once the ending is settled.
- It carries a genuine and very obscure literary history.
- No meaning can be given, because the word appears once and is unexplained.
- It will be spelled out constantly, since almost nobody has met it.
- It is firmly of the turn of the twentieth century.
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Ardath
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ardaths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Ardath are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ardath in 2025?
- Ardath is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ardath with classmates?
- Ardath will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ardath? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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