Adalyn
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "noble" or "nobility".
Name Census estimates that about 29,514 living Americans carry the first name Adalyn. It sits at #219 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adalyn today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adalyn births was 2015 (2,456 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adalyn. 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 Adalyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Adalyn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,613 Americans
Peak year
2015
2,456 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#219
Tracked since 1908
Census
Adalyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,328 people with the first name Adalyn, which placed it at #1,635 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
#1,635
National first-name rank
People counted
19K
19,328 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adalyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adalyn is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Adalyn 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 Adalyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.7% · 14,824
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 2,721
- Two or more races5.1% · 989
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 378
- Black or African American1.5% · 288
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 128
Popularity
Adalyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adalyn from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 18,843 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adalyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adalyn 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 Adalyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adalyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Adalyn, while Vermont, Hawaii, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 580 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adalyn
The name Adalyn has its roots in the Germanic languages, originating from the Old English "Æthelwyn" or the Old German "Adalhwina". These names are composed of the elements "Athal" or "Adal", meaning "noble" or "noble birth", and "wyn" or "hwina", meaning "friend" or "dear one". The name essentially translates to "noble friend" or "dear noble one".
In the Middle Ages, the name took on various spellings, including "Adelina", "Adeline", and "Adaline", reflecting the cultural and linguistic influences of different regions. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where an Englishwoman named "Adelina" is mentioned as a landowner.
During the medieval period, the name was particularly popular among the nobility and aristocracy, with several notable women bearing the name. One of the most famous was Adeline of Blois (c. 1070-1137), the daughter of Stephen II, Count of Blois, who married King Stephen of England and played a significant role in the disputes surrounding the English succession.
In the 13th century, Adeline of Burgundy (c. 1233-1273) was a French noblewoman and the wife of Henry III, Duke of Brabant. She is known for her involvement in the political affairs of the Duchy of Brabant and for founding several religious institutions.
The name also found its way into literature and folklore. In the 14th century, the French poet Guillaume de Machaut wrote a poem titled "La Fontaine Amoureuse", featuring a character named Adeline. Additionally, the name appears in the medieval French romance "The Romance of the Rose", written by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun.
In more recent history, Adeline Genée (1878-1970) was a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer who achieved fame in the early 20th century. She is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of modern ballet technique.
Another notable figure was Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), the renowned British writer and one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century. Her works, such as "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse", explored themes of consciousness and the subjective experience of reality.
While the spelling "Adalyn" is a more modern variation, the name has maintained its historical roots and cultural significance, reflecting a rich tapestry of linguistic and cultural influences.
People
Adalyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adalyn 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
Adalyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adalyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,514 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adalyn 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 11,613 US residents.
Is Adalyn a common name?
We classify Adalyn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 29,815 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adalyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Adalyn was 2015, when 2,456 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adalyn is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adalyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,328 people with the name Adalyn, or 6.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,635 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 Adalyn 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 Adalyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adalyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,327 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Adalyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adalyn is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Adalyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adalyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.7% (14,824 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 Adalyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adalyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adalyn 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 Adalyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adalyn 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 Adalyn 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 have Adalyn as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Adalyn, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.