Asia

Where Asia comes from

From Middle English Asia, Asie, from Old French Asie and Latin Asia, from Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓σῐ́ᾱ (Ăsĭ́ā), from Mycenaean Greek 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊 (a-si-wi-ja /⁠aswijaː⁠/), in turn probably from Hittite 𒀸𒋗𒉿 (aš-šu-wa /⁠Aššuwa⁠/, “northwest Anatolia”) of uncertain origin. Potentially from an Aegean language family substrate or Akkadian. Possibly a doublet of Assuwa.
— Wiktionary's entry for Asia
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1945
    First appearance
    #4,025 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1975
    Asia Argento born
    Italian actress and filmmaker
  3. 1991
    Asia Muhammad born
    US American tennis player
  4. 1997
    Peak, #195
    1,532 babies named Asia — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2009
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #474.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name transferred from the place name, of modern usage.
Namesakes
  • Asia Argento · Italian actress and filmmaker, born 1975
  • Asia Muhammad · US American tennis player, born 1991
  • Asia Ramazan Antar · Kurdish Fighter, Feminist and Soldier, 1997–2016
  • Asia Kate Dillon · American actor and producer, born 1984
  • Asia Bibi · Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy, born 1971

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.