Ida
A feminine given name of German origin meaning "industrious one".
Name Census estimates that about 31,005 living Americans carry the first name Ida. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ida today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ida births was 1918 (4,470 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ida. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ida with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ida is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 766 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Ida is about 65 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Idas were born before 1971.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Ida have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
31K
~ 1 in 11,055 Americans
Peak year
1918
4,470 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1967 SSA rank
#1,143
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ida in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 40,114 people with the first name Ida, which placed it at #1,045 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,045
National first-name rank
People counted
40K
40,114 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ida
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ida is White at 53.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Hispanic (13.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ida described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ida at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.0% · 21,267
- Black or African American27.3% · 10,967
- Hispanic or Latino13.4% · 5,365
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 1,162
- Two or more races2.1% · 834
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 519
Gender
Gender distribution for Ida
Out of the 188,480 babies given the name Ida since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Ida as a male name
- Ranked #3,096 in 1967
- 8 male births in 1967
- Peak: 1929 (25 births)
Ida as a female name
- Ranked #1,143 in 2024
- 211 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (4,450 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ida appears almost entirely female. Of the 40,120 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Ida: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ida from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 35,790 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ida by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ida during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Idas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Ida, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,452 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ida
The name Ida has its roots in the Germanic languages, with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Germanic root "id," which means "work" or "labor." The name was initially popular among the German-speaking regions of Europe during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ida can be found in the Nibelungenlied, a legendary German epic poem from around the 13th century. In this epic, Ida is mentioned as the name of a minor character. This suggests that the name was already in use during that era.
Historically, the name Ida has been associated with several notable figures. One of the most prominent is Ida of Herzfeld, also known as Saint Ida of Toggenburg (c. 1040-1116), a German noblewoman and abbess who founded the Fischingen Abbey in present-day Switzerland. Her life and works earned her recognition as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Another renowned Ida was Ida of Lorraine (c. 1040-1113), a Countess of Boulogne and the wife of Eustace III, Count of Boulogne. She played a significant role in the political affairs of her time and was known for her intelligence and leadership.
In the 12th century, Ida of Formbach-Ratelnberg (c. 1180-1226) was a German noblewoman and a renowned mystic and writer. She is remembered for her spiritual writings and her contribution to the development of mysticism in the Middle Ages.
During the 19th century, the name Ida gained popularity across Europe and beyond. One notable bearer of the name was Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858), an Austrian explorer and travel writer who embarked on numerous expeditions around the world, becoming one of the first female explorers of her time.
Another famous Ida was Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), an African American journalist, activist, and leader in the civil rights movement. She was a pioneering figure in the fight against lynching and racial discrimination in the United States.
Over the centuries, the name Ida has been used in various cultures and languages, but its Germanic roots remain a consistent thread in its history and evolution.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ida
People
Ida + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ida as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ida: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ida?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 31,005 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ida going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 11,055 US residents.
Is Ida a common name?
We classify Ida as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 188,480 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ida most popular?
The single biggest year for Ida was 1918, when 4,470 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ida is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ida in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 40,114 people with the name Ida, or 13.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,045 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ida in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ida?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ida appears almost entirely female. Of the 40,120 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ida?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ida is White at 53.0%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Hispanic (13.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ida most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ida in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.0% (21,267 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ida in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ida a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Ida in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ida still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ida in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ida can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Ida?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.