How to say it
JADE
/dʒeɪd/
Feminine
Jade
Jade stone
What it means
Spanish piedra de la ijada ('stone of the side'), shortened over centuries; the stone was thought to cure kidney pain when held against the side. The gem name, then the given name.
Jade comes from Spanish piedra de la ijada ('stone of the side'); Spanish colonists in the Americas saw indigenous people use the stone for kidney pain and named it accordingly. The English word jade is the truncation. As a given name it picked up in the 1980s with the broader gem-name wave (Ruby, Pearl, Opal) and pushed through. It's been in the US top 200 since the early 2000s. Single syllable. Particularly common as a unisex name in some communities, though it leans feminine in US records.
Popularity over time
peaked at #80 in 2023, currently #95 in 2025.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, names given to at least 5 babies in a year, 1880–present. See where the names are moving
Heads-up notes
- Pop culture
Jade from Mortal Kombat (the green-clad assassin) and Jade Goody (the British Big Brother contestant) are the strongest English-language anchors; both have their own complexity.
Who's worn it
Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.
- Jada Pinkett Smith Actress and producer (Jada as the more common variant)
- Jade Thirlwall British singer, Little Mix
Spelling variants
- Jada
- Jayde
Names with the same feeling
See Jade from another angle
By style