Adaiah
A Hebrew name meaning "Jehovah has adorned" or "Yahweh is adornment".
Name Census estimates that about 540 living Americans carry the first name Adaiah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Adaiah today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adaiah births was 2019 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adaiah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
540
~ 1 in 634,730 Americans
Peak year
2019
43 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2021 SSA rank
#3,686
Tracked since 1996
Census
Adaiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 338 people with the first name Adaiah, which placed it at #27,177 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#27,177
National first-name rank
People counted
338
338 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
37.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adaiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adaiah is Black at 37.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.6%) and White (21.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Adaiah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Adaiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American37.6% · 127
- Hispanic or Latino29.6% · 100
- White21.3% · 72
- Two or more races7.4% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Adaiah
Adaiah leans heavily female at 82.8% of total registrations, but 94 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Adaiah as a male name
- Ranked #10,813 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 2019 (14 births)
Adaiah as a female name
- Ranked #3,686 in 2024
- 41 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (41 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adaiah on both sides of the split. Of the 338 people counted with this name, 94 were male (27.8%) and 244 were female (72.2%).
Popularity
Adaiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adaiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 250 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adaiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adaiah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Adaiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adaiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, Florida recorded the most babies named Adaiah, while Texas, Florida, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adaiah
The name Adaiah is a Hebrew name that originated in ancient times. It is a combination of two Hebrew words, "ada" meaning "ornament" or "jewel," and "Yah," which is a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh." The name Adaiah essentially translates to "ornament of God" or "jewel of the Lord."
In the Hebrew Bible, the name Adaiah is mentioned as the name of several individuals. One notable mention is in 2 Chronicles 23:1, where Adaiah is listed as one of the leaders who helped to establish Joash as the king of Judah. This suggests that the name was in use during the time of the divided monarchy in ancient Israel, around the 9th century BCE.
The earliest recorded example of the name Adaiah is found in the Book of Ezra, which was written around the 5th century BCE. In Ezra 10:29, an individual named Adaiah is mentioned as one of the men who had taken foreign wives during the time of the Israelites' return from Babylonian captivity.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Adaiah. One such person was Adaiah ben Ahavah, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 12th century CE. He was a renowned commentator on the Talmud and authored works on Jewish law and philosophy.
Another notable Adaiah was Adaiah ben Shalom, a Jewish poet and philosopher who lived in the 14th century CE. He was born in Catalonia, Spain, and is known for his works on Jewish mysticism and his contributions to the development of Kabbalah.
In the 17th century, there was an Adaiah Shalom, a Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Poland. He was a respected authority on Jewish law and wrote several works on religious subjects.
During the 18th century, an individual named Adaiah Dayan was a prominent Jewish leader in the community of Aleppo, Syria. He served as the chief rabbi of Aleppo and was highly regarded for his knowledge of Jewish law and tradition.
In the 19th century, Adaiah Yitzchak Rapoport was a notable Jewish scholar and author who lived in Lithuania. He wrote extensively on Jewish history and was known for his expertise in Hebrew literature and biblical exegesis.
While the name Adaiah has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has been used across various Jewish communities throughout history, reflecting its enduring significance and connection to religious and scholarly traditions.
People
Adaiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adaiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Adaiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adaiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 540 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adaiah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 634,730 US residents.
Is Adaiah a common name?
We classify Adaiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 545 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adaiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Adaiah was 2019, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adaiah is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adaiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 338 people with the name Adaiah, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,177 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Adaiah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Adaiah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adaiah on both sides of the split. Of the 338 people counted with this name, 94 were male (27.8%) and 244 were female (72.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Adaiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adaiah is Black at 37.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.6%) and White (21.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Adaiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Adaiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.6% (127 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Adaiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adaiah a female name?
Yes, 82.8% of people registered as Adaiah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Adaiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adaiah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Adaiah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Adaiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.