FWIW, it also means "apple" in several Turkic languages (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Azerbaijani, and maybe others).

Uzbek and Turkish are also pretty close.

I was aware of the Spanish meaning which is the same, but the reason we picked it was more mundane. It was one of the few names my wife and I both liked a lot.

ALMA is also a radio telescope in Chile (the Atacama Large Millimeter Array), which is somewhat closer afield to what I do.

Ha, I also suggested Ada for the same reason. And also didn’t tell my wife why.

But we ended up not using it.