Ida
Meaning of Ida
Ida—EE-dah in German, EYE-duh in English—springs from the Old High German element “id,” meaning “industry” or “labor,” an etymology that lends the name a quietly diligent air. Mythology and literature, however, keep it from sounding like a time-clock: Mount Ida cradled the infant Zeus, while the Norse goddess Iðunn guarded apples of eternal youth, and Tennyson gave the name scholarly heft in “The Princess.” Stateside, Ida peaked just after 1900, faded to the fringes mid-century, and has lately hovered around the 700s—a numerical hum that hints at a slow but steady revival. Factor in trailblazing actress-director Ida Lupino and the name’s spelling-bee simplicity, and the result is a compact classic that balances no-nonsense efficiency with a discreet mythic shimmer.
Pronunciation
German
- Pronunced as EE-dah (/ˈiːda/)
English
- Pronunced as EYE-duh (/ˈaɪdə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Ida
| Ida B. Wells was a fearless journalist and civil rights pioneer who helped found the NAACP and fought for equality for African Americans, especially women. |
| Ida Husted Harper was an American journalist and suffragist who wrote Susan B. Anthony's biography and helped complete the History of Woman Suffrage. |
| Dame Ida Mann was a trailblazing ophthalmologist celebrated for her research on how the eye develops and how genetics and social conditions shape eye disease around the world. |
| Born to Count Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi and his Japanese wife Mitsuko Aoyama, Ida Friederike Görres became a Catholic writer hailed by Bishop Erik Varden as one of the seminal Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. |
| Ida Gibbs Hunt championed racial and gender equality, cofounded one of Washington's first YWCAs for African Americans, and helped Du Bois lead the early Pan-African movement. |
| Ida Applebroog was an American artist whose paintings and sculptures explored gender, sexual identity, violence and politics, earning her a MacArthur Fellowship among many other honors. |
| Ida M. Evans was an American short story writer whose work flourished in the 1910s and 1920s, with several of her stories adapted into films. |
| Ida Barney was an American astronomer at Yale who charted the positions of 150,000 stars and won the 1952 Annie J. Cannon Award. |
| Ida Nudel was a Soviet-born Israeli activist, known as the Guardian Angel for championing the Prisoners of Zion. |
| Ida Kamińska was a celebrated Polish actress and director who produced more than 70 plays and later took her talent to Broadway after moving to the United States. |
| Ida Mayfield Wood was a British American socialite, married to publisher Benjamin Wood, who spent most of her later years living as a recluse with her two sisters in a New York City hotel suite. |
