Ida
Definition
Ida is a Germanic name, but its meaning is obscure. It probably has some connection with a word meaning "work", and was most likely a pet form of a number of longer names containing this element. It is one of the medieval girl's name which were very popular in the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth. Tennyson used it in the middle of the nineteenth century as the name of the heroine of his poem mocking female pretensions to education, "The Princess" (1847), and the name was given further currency by the adaptation of this work by Gilbert and Sullivan as Princess Ida (1870). In Ireland, in the forms Ida, Ita or Ide, it comes from the Irish word for "thirst", and was the name of a sixth-century Irish saint renowned for her austerity. Ida is not much used by Anglophones at the moment, but is popular in Scandinavia.
Sex
Girls
Similar names
Naming Your Baby
Copyright © 2007 Julia Cresswell
