Ida (given name)

Ida is a feminine given name found in Europe and North America. It is popular in Scandinavian countries, where it is pronounced Ee-da.

The name has an ancient Germanic etymology, according to which it means ‘industrious’ or ‘prosperous’. It derives from the Germanic root id, meaning "labor, work" (also found in "Iði"). Alternatively, it may be related to the name of the Old Norse goddess Iðunn.

Ida also occurs as an anglicisation of the Irish feminine given name Íde.

Ida is a currently popular name in the Nordic countries and is among the top 20 names given to girls born in 2019 in Denmark. It was among the top 20 names for newborn girls in Norway in 2013 and among the top 50 names for newborn girls in Sweden in 2013. It was among the top 10 names for girls born to Swedish speaking families in Finland in 2013. Finnish variant Iida was among the top ten most popular names given to newborn girls in Finland in 2013.

Ida was at its height of popularity in the United States in the 1880s, when it ranked among the top ten names for girls. In an essay from Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine written in 1887, Ida is a favored name meaning "God-like". It remained among the top 100 most popular names for girls there until 1930. It last ranked among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States in 1986.

Notable people with the name include:

People

 * Ida Applebroog (1929–2023), American painter
 * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
 * Ida Baccini (1850–1911), Italian children's author
 * Ida Bachmann (1900–1995), Danish librarian and journalist
 * Ida Barney (1886–1982), American astronomer
 * Ida Botti Scifoni (1812–1844), Italian painter, sculptor and designer
 * Ida Carloni Talli (1860–1940), Italian actress
 * Ida Cook (1904–1986), British campaigner for Jewish refugees and romance novelist
 * Ida Corr (born 1977), Danish singer and songwriter
 * Ida, Countess of Boulogne (1160–1216), French noblewoman
 * Ida M. Curran (1863–1948), American journalist and editor
 * Ida Daly (1901–1985), American disability community leader
 * Ida Wharton Dawson (1860-1928), American social worker and clubwoman
 * Ida Di Benedetto (born 1945), Italian actress and film producer
 * Ida Dixon (1854-1916), American golf course architect
 * Ida Dwinger (born 1957), Danish actress
 * Ida Horton East (1842-1915), American philanthropist
 * Ida Ekeroth Clausson (born 1991), Swedish politician
 * Ida Engberg (born 1984), Swedish techno DJ
 * Ida Finney Mackrille (1867–1960), American suffragist and women's political leader in California
 * Ida M. Flynn (1942–2004), American computer scientist, textbook author, and professor
 * Ida Galli (born 1939), Italian actress
 * Ida Genther Schmidt (1902–1999), American anatomist, medical college professor
 * Ida Haendel (1928–2020), British violinist
 * Ida Henriette da Fonseca (1802–1858), Danish opera singer
 * Ida Jenshus (born 1987), Norwegian musician
 * Ida Kleijnen (1936–2019), Dutch chef
 * Ida Krehm (1912–1998), Canadian-American pianist
 * Ida Lewis (disambiguation), several people
 * Ida Marie Lipsius (1837–1927), German writer
 * Ida Ljungqvist (born 1981), Swedish model
 * Ida Loo-Talvari (1901–1997), Estonian opera singer
 * Ida Lupino (1918–1995), American actress and film director
 * Ida Malosi, lawyer and judge from New Zealand
 * Ida Madsen (born 1994), Danish singer
 * Ida Elizabeth Brandon Mathis (1857–1925), American businesswoman and farmers' advocate
 * Ida McCain (1884–after 1937), American architect
 * Ida McNeil (1888–1974), American broadcaster and flag designer
 * Ida Nettleship (1877–1907), English artist
 * Ida Göthilda Nilsson (1840–1920), Swedish sculptor
 * Ida Nilsson (born 1981), Swedish trailrunner and ski mountaineer
 * Ida Noddack (1896–1978), German scientist
 * Ida Nudel (1931–2021), Russian refusenik
 * Ida Odinga (born 1950), Kenyan businesswoman, activist and educator
 * Ida of Bernicia (died 559), King of Bernicia
 * Ida of Lorraine (1040–1113), French saint and noblewoman
 * Ida of Nivelles (1190–1231), beatified Belgian Cistercian nun and mystic
 * Ida Laura Pfeiffer (1797–1858), Austrian explorer and writer
 * Ida Pinto-Sezzi (1852–????), Italian painter
 * Ida Celestia Pond, Canadian haiku writer and Pond heiress.
 * Ida Praetorius, Danish ballerina
 * Ida Quaiatti (1890–1962), Italian opera soprano
 * Ida Redig (born 1987), Swedish singer, actress, music producer and songwriter
 * Ida Rodríguez Prampolini (1925–2017), Mexican academic, art historian and cultural preservationist
 * Ida Rubinstein (1885–1960), Russian ballet dancer
 * Ida Mary Barry Ryan (1854-1917), American philanthropist
 * Ida Sammis (1865–1943), American suffragist and politician
 * Ida Saxton McKinley (1847–1907), American first lady and wife of President William McKinley
 * Ida Schreiter (1912–1948), German concentration camp warden executed for war crimes
 * Ida von Schulzenheim (1859–1940), Swedish painter
 * Ida Scudder (1870–1960), American missionary
 * Ida Štimac (born 2000), Croatian alpine skier
 * Ida Tarbell (1857–1944), American journalist
 * Ida Törnström 1862–1949, Swedish painter, poet
 * Ida Vihuri (1882–1929), Finnish politician
 * Ida Vitale (born 1923), Uruguayan poet, Miguel de Cervantes Prize 2018
 * Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), American journalist and civil rights activist
 * Ida L. White (fl. 1862–1901), Irish poet, also published simply as "Ida"
 * Ida Wood (1838–1932), American recluse
 * Ida Wyman (1926–2019), American photographer
 * Iida Yrjö-Koskinen (1857—1937), Finnish politician
 * Ida Lien (born 1997), Norwegian biathlete
 * Ida Hulkko (born 1998), Finnish swimmer
 * Ida Nowakowska (born 1990), Polish-American actress

Fictional characters

 * Ida, in Jaishankar Prasad's poem Kamayani
 * Ida, protagonist in the Monument Valley video game
 * Princess Ida, eponymous heroine of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera
 * Ida Barlow, in the British television series Coronation Street
 * Ida Blankenship, in the American television series Mad Men
 * Ida Davis, Glenn Quagmire's transgender mom on the American animated comedy series Family Guy
 * Ida Lebenstein, protagonist in the 2013 Polish film Ida
 * Ida Morgenstern, mother of Rhoda Morgenstern from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda
 * Ida Svensson, in Astrid Lindgren's children's book Emil i Lönneberga
 * Ida, Arlo's mother in The Good Dinosaur
 * Ida, in Ida: A Novel by Gertrude Stein

Other figures

 * Ida, daughter of Corybas and mother of Minos, in Greek mythology
 * Ida (goddess), a goddess in Hinduism