Adair
A Celtic name meaning "ford across the river".
Name Census estimates that about 2,690 living Americans carry the first name Adair. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Adair today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adair births was 2007 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adair. 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.
Key insights
- • Adair was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Adair sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 127,418 Americans
Peak year
2007
120 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,363
Tracked since 1914
Gender
Gender distribution for Adair
Adair is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,127 total registrations, 1,730 (55.3%) were male and 1,397 (44.7%) were female.
Adair as a male name
- Ranked #2,363 in 2024
- 59 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (100 births)
Adair as a female name
- Ranked #5,600 in 2024
- 22 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (35 births)
Popularity
Adair: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adair from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 803 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Adair remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adair 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 Adair during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adairs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Adair, while Colorado, Arizona, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 69 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adair
The name Adair has its origins in the Gaelic language, derived from the Old Irish word "athar," meaning "ford" or "shallow crossing." It is believed to have originated in the medieval period, when it was used as a topographic surname referring to someone who lived near a ford or a shallow river crossing.
The earliest recorded use of Adair as a first name dates back to the 12th century in Scotland, where it was primarily used as a surname by families living in the Scottish Lowlands. One of the earliest documented references to the name is in the Ragman Rolls of 1296, a record of homage sworn to King Edward I of England by Scottish nobles and landowners.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with the rise of the Adair family, a Scottish clan based in County Antrim, Ireland. The most notable member of this family was Sir Robert Adair (1763-1855), a British diplomat and politician who served as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and later as Governor of Bombay.
Another influential figure bearing the name Adair was John Adair (1757-1840), an American soldier and politician who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later served as Governor of Kentucky from 1820 to 1824.
In the realm of literature, Adair appears in the works of Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), who featured characters with this name in his novels, such as "The Bride of Lammermoor" and "The Heart of Midlothian."
One of the most famous bearers of the name Adair in the 20th century was Adair Craigmill (1913-1989), an American journalist and author known for her work as a war correspondent during World War II and the Korean War.
Another notable figure was Adair Crawford (1748-1795), an American pioneer and Revolutionary War soldier who played a significant role in the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee.
While the name Adair has its roots in Scotland and Ireland, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in North America and Australia, where it has gained popularity as a given name for both males and females.
People
Adair + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adair 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
Adair: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adair?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,690 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adair 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 127,418 US residents.
Is Adair a common name?
We classify Adair as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,127 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adair most popular?
The single biggest year for Adair was 2007, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adair is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Adair a male name?
Yes, 55.3% of people registered as Adair in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.