Adam
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "earth" or "man of the earth".
Name Census estimates that about 540,647 living Americans carry the first name Adam. It sits at #100 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adam today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adam births was 1984 (24,082 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Zachary (536,589).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adam. 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 Adam with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Adam is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,065 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
541K
~ 1 in 634 Americans
Peak year
1984
24,082 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#100
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 496,298 people with the first name Adam, which placed it at #87 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
#87
National first-name rank
People counted
496K
496,298 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
164.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adam is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Adam 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 Adam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.9% · 401,312
- Hispanic or Latino10.2% · 50,775
- Two or more races3.5% · 17,159
- Black or African American2.9% · 14,588
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 9,901
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2,563
Gender
Gender distribution for Adam
Out of the 578,925 babies given the name Adam since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Adam as a male name
- Ranked #100 in 2024
- 3,497 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (23,940 births)
Adam as a female name
- Ranked #11,079 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (142 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adam appears almost entirely male. Of the 496,300 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Adam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adam from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 196,100 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adam 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 Adam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Adam, while Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,215 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adam
The name Adam is derived from the Hebrew word "adam" which means "man" or "earth." The name is believed to have originated during the ancient times of the Hebrew culture, as it is found in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where Adam is described as the first man created by God.
The name Adam is one of the oldest names on record, and it has been used across various cultures and religions throughout history. In the Bible, Adam is the name given to the first human being created by God from the dust of the earth. This Biblical reference has made the name Adam popular among Christians and Jews for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Adam can be found in the ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets dating back to around 2500 BCE. These tablets mention an individual named "Ad-amu," which is believed to be a precursor to the name Adam.
In the Islamic tradition, Adam is also revered as the first prophet and the father of humanity. The Quran and other Islamic texts refer to him as "Adam," solidifying the name's significance in the Muslim faith.
Throughout history, there have been numerous notable individuals named Adam. One of the most famous was Adam Smith (1723-1790), the Scottish philosopher and economist who is considered the father of modern economics. His seminal work, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," laid the foundations for the study of economics.
Another well-known Adam was Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), a Polish poet, dramatist, and political activist who is regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. His epic poem "Pan Tadeusz" is considered a masterpiece of Polish literature.
In the world of art, Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) was a German painter who played a significant role in the development of the Baroque style. His innovative use of light and shadow influenced many later artists, including Rembrandt.
Adam Opel (1837-1895) was a German industrialist who founded the Opel automobile company, which later became a subsidiary of General Motors. His contribution to the automotive industry has left a lasting legacy.
Lastly, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972) was an American politician and civil rights leader who represented Harlem in the United States House of Representatives for over 25 years. He played a pivotal role in the fight against racial discrimination and advocated for equal rights for African Americans.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Adam
People
Adam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adam 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
Adam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 540,647 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adam 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 US residents.
Is Adam a common name?
We classify Adam as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 578,925 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adam most popular?
The single biggest year for Adam was 1984, when 24,082 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adam is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 496,298 people with the name Adam, or 164.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #87 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 Adam 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 Adam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adam appears almost entirely male. Of the 496,300 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Adam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adam is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Adam most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.9% (401,312 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 Adam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adam a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Adam 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 Adam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adam 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 Adam 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 the name Adam?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Adam, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.