1815–1852 · Scientists

Ada Lovelace signature

English mathematician and writer, 1815–1852

Inspired by Ada Lovelace’s signature

A rendering in a modern handwriting font, made for this page. It is not the real signature; see where to view the original below. Where to see the original ↓Style: Allura, slant 8°

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Who Ada Lovelace was

Augusta Ada Byron was born in London in 1815, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron, whom she never knew. Her mother, Annabella Milbanke, had her taught mathematics and science. In 1835 she married William King, who became Earl of Lovelace in 1838, making her Countess of Lovelace. She died in 1852, aged 36.

She is remembered for her work with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine, a mechanical general-purpose computer that was designed but never built.

The story of the signature

In 1843 Lovelace published an English translation of an article on the Analytical Engine by the Italian engineer Luigi Menabrea, adding a set of notes about three times as long as the original. The last of them, Note G, sets out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the engine, often called the first published computer program. She did not sign the notes with her name: each ends with the initials “A.A.L.”, Augusta Ada Lovelace, a discreet way for a countess to sign a scientific paper in the 1840s.

In letters she signed “A. A. Lovelace”, as in a letter now in the University and State Library in Bonn, and sometimes in fuller forms. Her long correspondence with Babbage, much of it in the British Library, shows her working through technical questions with him; in a letter of 10 July 1843 she proposed an example of a calculation for her notes.

What makes it distinctive

A.A.L.

Three initials, the only signature on her most important published work.

Double initial

“A. A. Lovelace” keeps both first names, Augusta and Ada, as initials.

A title, not a surname

Lovelace was her husband’s earldom, not a family surname, and she signed with it.

How to give your signature a similar feel

In the signature generator Type tab, try Allura or Great Vibes with a Slant of about 8° for a smooth, even nineteenth-century line.
Experiment with a pure-initials signature, like A.A.L. Three letters with full stops can be elegant and very fast to write.
If you have two first names, use both initials before your surname for a formal signature.
Make an initials version for annotations and drafts and a full version for documents, and save both as transparent PNGs.

Where to see the original

These links lead to archives, libraries, museums and Wikimedia Commons.

Questions about Ada Lovelace’s signature

How did Ada Lovelace sign her work?

Her 1843 notes on the Analytical Engine are signed only with the initials “A.A.L.”. Her letters are often signed “A. A. Lovelace”.

Why “Lovelace” rather than Byron or King?

Her husband William King became Earl of Lovelace in 1838, and as Countess of Lovelace she signed with the title.

What is Note G?

The last of her notes on Menabrea’s article. It describes how the Analytical Engine could compute Bernoulli numbers and is often called the first published computer program.