Biblical name meaning 'anklet' or 'adorned'; Achsah was the daughter of Caleb in the Old Testament.
Achsah is an ancient Hebrew name (עַכְסָה, *Akhsah*) whose meaning is generally rendered as "anklet" or "ankle bracelet" — a delicate piece of jewelry with symbolic resonance in the ancient Near East, where such ornaments signified beauty, social standing, and marriageability. The name appears in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges, where Achsah is the daughter of Caleb, given in marriage to Othniel (who would become one of Israel's first judges) as a reward for his military valor in capturing the city of Debir. Achsah is portrayed as a woman of practical intelligence and courage: she dismounts from her donkey to petition her father directly for springs of water to supplement the arid land of her dowry — and Caleb grants her both the upper and lower springs, a remarkable moment of female agency within the patriarchal narrative.
The name traveled into English usage largely through the Puritan tradition of the 17th century, when deep familiarity with Old Testament scripture made obscure biblical names into viable — even desirable — choices. Puritan families in England and colonial America deliberately sought out names that were rare and unmistakably scriptural, viewing them as markers of godliness and learning. Achsah appears in colonial records from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia across the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the 19th century, Achsah had largely faded from active use as naming fashions moved toward classical and then Romantic forms. Today it is extraordinarily rare, giving it an almost archaeological quality — a name that carries millennia of history in four letters, inviting curiosity about its origins and the spirited biblical woman who first bore it.