Adams
A masculine name derived from the Hebrew word for "earth" or "soil".
Name Census estimates that about 1,035 living Americans carry the first name Adams. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adams today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adams births was 1983 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adams. 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 Adams with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 331,164 Americans
Peak year
1983
42 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,207
Tracked since 1898
Census
Adams in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,047 people with the first name Adams, which placed it at #12,033 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
#12,033
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,047 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adams
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adams is White at 37.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.7%) and Hispanic (17.6%). 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 Adams 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 Adams at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.2% · 390
- Black or African American36.7% · 384
- Hispanic or Latino17.6% · 184
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 61
- Two or more races1.8% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 9
Popularity
Adams: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adams from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 328 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Adams remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adams 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 Adams 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 4 states and territories. Florida, California, New York recorded the most babies named Adams, while Ohio, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adams
The name Adams is derived from the Hebrew name "Adam", which means "earth" or "man". It originates from the biblical story of the creation of the first man, Adam, in the Book of Genesis. The name has been in use since ancient times and has been adopted by various cultures and languages over the centuries.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Adam is in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to the first man created by God. The name is also mentioned in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, where it is spelled as "Aadam". In the Christian tradition, Adam is considered the father of all humanity, and his name has been widely used as a given name throughout the ages.
The name Adams is a variant of Adam that emerged in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is believed to have originated as a patronymic surname, indicating "son of Adam". Over time, Adams became a given name in its own right, often used as a middle name or as a first name for boys.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Adams. One of the most famous is John Adams (1735-1826), the second President of the United States and a Founding Father. Another prominent individual is Samuel Adams (1722-1803), a revolutionary leader and one of the key figures in the American Revolution.
Other notable people with the name Adams include Ansel Adams (1902-1984), an acclaimed American photographer known for his iconic black-and-white images of the American West; Douglas Adams (1952-2001), the British author best known for the comedic science fiction series "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"; and Amy Adams (born 1974), an American actress who has received numerous accolades, including six Academy Award nominations.
While the name Adams has deep roots in religious and historical contexts, it has also become a popular choice for parents in modern times, often chosen for its strong and down-to-earth connotations.
People
Adams + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adams 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
Adams: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adams?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,035 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adams 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 331,164 US residents.
Is Adams a common name?
We classify Adams as "Rare". It ranks above 90.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,196 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adams most popular?
The single biggest year for Adams was 1983, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adams is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adams in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,047 people with the name Adams, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,033 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 Adams 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 Adams?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adams leans strongly male. 913 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 138 female bearers (13.1%). 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 Adams?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adams is White at 37.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.7%) and Hispanic (17.6%). 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 Adams most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adams in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.2% (390 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 Adams in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adams a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adams 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 Adams still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adams 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 Adams 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 Americans are named Adams?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.