Vada
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Meaning
of disputed origin, often linked to Wade ('river crossing'); popularized by the 1991 film My Girl
The story
Vada is a name with a famous character and no securely agreed ancient root. In My Girl, Vada Sultenfuss grows up in a funeral home, worries constantly about death, writes poems, and navigates friendship with Thomas J. Her unusual first name helps establish a child who observes adult grief from uncomfortably close range without fully understanding it. The film turns a coming-of-age story toward loss, but it also gives Vada wit, curiosity, and a world beyond one sad event. None of those traits belongs automatically to a real bearer. The character is an association, not an etymology. Modern explanations have linked Vada with Wade, Veda, or invention, but the evidence is too thin to choose confidently. That uncertainty leaves a useful clean line. We can say where many viewers first met the name without pretending the screenplay created it or solved it. Vada arrives on screen distinctive, memorable, and still open.
How popular is Vada around the world?
In the United States, 1,892 babies were named Vada between 2020 and 2025.
Vada is on the official records of the United States, Canada, South Australia, England and Wales and Brazil.
United States
1 in 12,000
In the United States, 1,892 babies were named Vada between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Vada peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Canada
1 in 18,000
In Canada, 20 girls named Vada were born in 2024, ranked 1,231st among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
South Australia
1 in 18,0002017
In South Australia, 1 girl was registered as Vada in 2017.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
England and Wales
1 in 49,000
In England and Wales, 12 girls named Vada were born in 2025, ranked 2,278th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Brazil
At the 2022 census, 24 people in Brazil were named Vada, ranked 109,849th, with a median age of 52.
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Ireland
last on record 2024
Vada is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 9 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Vada deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Vada truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Vada fits with your family’s names and surname.
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