Adal
Pure, virtuous, upright; a name from Arabic origins.
Name Census estimates that about 392 living Americans carry the first name Adal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adal today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adal births was 2006 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adal. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Adal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
392
~ 1 in 874,373 Americans
Peak year
2006
38 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,175
Tracked since 1985
Census
Adal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 442 people with the first name Adal, which placed it at #22,485 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
#22,485
National first-name rank
People counted
442
442 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
74.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adal is Hispanic at 74.2%. The next largest groups are White (11.8%) and Black (10.9%). 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 Adal 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 Adal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino74.2% · 328
- White11.8% · 52
- Black or African American10.9% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 9
- Two or more races0.9% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Adal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adal from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 239 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adal 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 Adal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adals live
Origin
Meaning and history of Adal
The name Adal has its origins in the Arabic language and can be traced back to the 7th century. It is derived from the Arabic word 'adl,' which means justice, fairness, or integrity. The name was prevalent among the Arabic-speaking populations of the Middle East and North Africa during the early Islamic era.
Adal is believed to have been used as a personal name in ancient times, although its earliest recorded instances are found in medieval Arabic literature and historical accounts. One notable example is Adal ibn al-Faraj, a renowned Arab poet and scholar who lived in the 10th century.
In the 13th century, Adal gained prominence as the name of a medieval Muslim sultanate located in present-day Somalia and Djibouti. The Adal Sultanate played a significant role in the region's history, engaging in conflicts with the neighboring Christian kingdom of Ethiopia.
One of the most famous historical figures bearing the name Adal was Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, also known as Ahmad Gran (1506-1543). He was the Sultan of Adal and led a powerful military campaign against the Ethiopian Empire, inflicting a major defeat on the Christian forces at the Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529.
Another notable figure with the name Adal was Adal Ramírez (1837-1888), a Mexican general and politician who served as the Governor of Chihuahua during the late 19th century. He played a crucial role in the Mexican Revolution and the struggle for independence from Spanish colonial rule.
In the 20th century, Adal Malki (1917-1988) was a renowned Egyptian actor and comedian. He was widely celebrated for his performances in numerous films and stage productions, and is considered one of the pioneers of Egyptian comedy.
Adal Rifaat (1927-2016) was a prominent Lebanese writer and academic. He was a prolific author who published numerous novels, short stories, and literary works, and was widely recognized for his contributions to Arabic literature.
Adal Mallik (born 1947) is a Bangladeshi novelist and short story writer. He has been honored with several literary awards and is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary Bengali literature.
People
Adal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adal 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
Adal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 392 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adal 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 874,373 US residents.
Is Adal a common name?
We classify Adal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 397 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adal most popular?
The single biggest year for Adal was 2006, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adal is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 442 people with the name Adal, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,485 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 Adal 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 Adal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adal leans strongly male. 413 people counted with this name were male (92.2%), compared with 35 female bearers (7.8%). 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 Adal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adal is Hispanic at 74.2%. The next largest groups are White (11.8%) and Black (10.9%). 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 Adal most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Adal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.2% (328 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 Adal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adal 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.
Is Adal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adal 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 Adal 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 many people are called Adal?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.