Asa
Meaning of Asa
Asa—pronounced AY-suh, as crisp as a dawn trumpet call—traces its etymological roots to the Hebrew אָסָא, “physician” or “healer,” a meaning that lingers like a restorative balm in the collective imagination; yet the name, peripatetic as a Roman legionary, has gathered additional associations along its travels, evoking “morning” in Japanese (朝) and even the swift “hawk” in Yoruba folklore. Classical scholars recall King Asa of Judah, whose reforms, recorded in the Vulgate with sober gravitas, render the name a quiet anthem of renewal, while botanists with a sense of humor note that Linnæus christened the spicy asa-foetida with the same syllables—proof, perhaps, that even malodorous resin can wear a noble badge. Contemporary onomastic data from the United States reveal a gentle but persistent ascent—hovering around rank 424 in 2024—suggesting that modern parents, like prudent senators tallying votes, favor a moniker both venerable and concise. In sum, Asa offers parents a compact triad of letters that nonetheless unfurls a scroll of history, cross-cultural resonance, and a whisper of medicinal promise—an elegant reminder that, si parva licet, great virtue may dwell in small things.
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as AY-suh (/ˈeɪsə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
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Notable People Named Asa
| English actor Asa Butterfield rose from child star in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas to leading roles in major films and the Netflix series Sex Education. |
| Asa Griggs Candler was an American entrepreneur who bought the Coca-Cola formula in 1888 and founded the company in 1892, growing it into a major brand. |
| Asa Philip Hall is an English professional footballer and Tiverton Town midfielder. |
| Asa Grant Hilliard III - Asa G. Hilliard III, also known as Nana Baffour Amankwatia II, was an African American educational psychologist and champion of indigenous African history who served as Dean at San Francisco State and later as the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University. |
| Asa Matsuoka, a Japanese philanthropist and cultural ambassador born in Tokyo in 1893, founded and served as first chairman of the UNICEF National Committee for Japan and was the first Japanese woman to earn a PhD from an American university. |
| Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs, was an English historian renowned for Victorian era studies and as the leading historian of broadcasting in Britain, becoming a life peer in 1976. |
| Asa Packer was a conservative Connecticut Yankee turned Pennsylvania railroad pioneer who founded Lehigh University and served in the United States House from 1853 to 1857. |
| Asa Whitney, a prosperous dry-goods merchant, became an early champion of a transcontinental railroad after an 1840s trip to China. |
| Asa Keisar is an Israeli rabbi, scribe, and religious scholar who promotes veganism as a Torah mandate and ideal, giving public lectures across Israel. |
| Asa T. Spaulding Jr. - Asa Timothy Spaulding Jr was an American business leader and politician. |
| Asa Daklugie was chief of the Nedni, the southern Chiricahua band, and son of Juh and nephew of Geronimo. |
| Asa Shinn Mercer was the first president of the Territorial University of Washington and later served in the Washington State Senate. |
| Asa Binns was a British mechanical and civil engineer who rose from draughtsman to head civil works at Chatham Dockyard, helped build major London docks, served as president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineers in Charge, and was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers before his death. |
| Asa Eldridge, a Massachusetts sea captain, set a still-standing 1854 transatlantic sailing record with the clipper Red Jacket and later vanished at sea while commanding the SS Pacific. |
| Asa White Kenney Billings was an American hydroelectric engineer who pioneered electrification in Brazil and is best known for creating the Represa Billings reservoir in Sao Paulo that bears his name. |
