Lovelace, Ada King, Countess Of

(born Dec. 10, 1815, London, Eng.—died Nov. 29, 1852, London) English mathematician. Her father was the poet Lord Byron.

In 1835 she married William King, 8th Baron King; when he was created an earl in 1838, she became countess of Lovelace. Having studied with the famous mathematician-logician Augustus De Morgan, she was introduced to Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (calculator) and studied plans for his Analytical Engine (computer) as early as 1833. In 1843 she translated and annotated an article about the Analytical Engine by Italian mathematician Luigi Federico Menabrea. In correspondence with Babbage, she also described how the Analytical Engine could be “programmed” to calculate certain numbers; this work has been called the first computer program, and in consequence she has been called the first computer programmer. Ada, a computer programming language, is named for her.