Adda
Baby name of Sanskrit origin meaning "complete or perfect".
Name Census estimates that about 120 living Americans carry the first name Adda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adda today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adda births was 1888 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adda. 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 Adda with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
120
~ 1 in 2,856,286 Americans
Peak year
1888
27 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,531
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 442 people with the first name Adda, 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
45.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adda is Hispanic at 45.7%. The next largest groups are White (42.1%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Adda 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 Adda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino45.7% · 202
- White42.1% · 186
- Black or African American5.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 14
- Two or more races2.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 4
Popularity
Adda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adda from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1880s, with 207 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1880s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adda 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 Adda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Addas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Adda
The name Adda is of Germanic origin, deriving from the Old High German word "atto" or "atto," which means "rich" or "prosperous." It is believed to have emerged during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 6th century AD, when Germanic tribes were spread across various regions of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Adda can be found in the Frankish chronicles, where it was mentioned as the name of a Frankish nobleman who lived during the 7th century. This individual, known as Adda of Pfalzel, was a prominent figure in the court of the Merovingian king Dagobert I.
In the 9th century, there was a notable figure named Adda, who served as the Abbot of Corbie in present-day France. He was highly regarded for his scholarly pursuits and contributions to the preservation of ancient texts during the Carolingian Renaissance.
Another historically significant individual bearing the name Adda was Adda of Pavia, a Lombard nobleman who lived in the 8th century. He played a crucial role in the political affairs of the Lombard Kingdom and served as the regent for the young King Liutprand.
In the 11th century, a woman named Adda of Auxerre gained recognition as a notable scholar and teacher. She was highly educated and renowned for her expertise in various subjects, including philosophy and theology, during a time when women's education was not widely encouraged.
During the medieval period, the name Adda was also associated with several religious figures. One such individual was Adda of Hildesheim, a German abbess who lived in the 11th century and was known for her piety and leadership in the Benedictine order.
While the name Adda was more prevalent in earlier centuries, it has continued to be used throughout history, though with varying degrees of popularity. Some other notable individuals who bore this name include Adda Khawaja, a 16th-century Persian poet, and Adda Gjertsen Leiren, a Norwegian politician and women's rights activist in the early 20th century.
People
Adda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adda 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
Adda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 120 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adda 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 2,856,286 US residents.
Is Adda a common name?
We classify Adda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 971 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adda most popular?
The single biggest year for Adda was 1888, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adda is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 442 people with the name Adda, 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 Adda 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 Adda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adda leans strongly female. 424 people counted with this name were female (96.6%), compared with 15 male bearers (3.4%). 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 Adda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adda is Hispanic at 45.7%. The next largest groups are White (42.1%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Adda most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Adda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.7% (202 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 Adda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adda 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 Adda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adda 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 Adda 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 common is the name Adda?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.