Adela
A feminine name of German origin meaning "noble" or "nobility".
Name Census estimates that about 8,869 living Americans carry the first name Adela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adela today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adela births was 2015 (227 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adela. 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.
People living today
8.9K
~ 1 in 38,646 Americans
Peak year
2015
227 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,095
Tracked since 1880
Popularity
Adela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adela from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,877 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adela remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adela 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 Adela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adelas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Adela, while Oregon, Nevada, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 327 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adela
The name Adela is a feminine given name of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German words "adal" meaning "noble" and "hildy" meaning "battle." It first emerged in the medieval period, around the 8th century, and was commonly used among the nobility and ruling classes of various Germanic tribes and kingdoms.
The earliest recorded use of the name Adela can be traced back to the 9th century, when it was borne by Adela of Pfalzel, a Frankish noblewoman and the daughter of King Louis the German. Another notable bearer of the name was Adela of Blois (1067-1137), a Countess of Blois and one of the most powerful and influential women of her time in medieval France.
In the 12th century, the name gained popularity in England, where it was often spelled as "Adelina" or "Alina." One of the most famous bearers of the name from this period was Adela of Normandy (1067-1137), the daughter of William the Conqueror and the wife of Stephen, King of England.
The name Adela also appeared in various literary works and historical records throughout the Middle Ages, such as the Nibelungenlied, an epic poem from medieval German literature, where it was the name of one of the main characters.
Other notable historical figures named Adela include:
1. Adela of Hamaland (c. 875-923), a Frankish noblewoman and the mother of Emperor Otto I of Germany.
2. Adela of Lotharingia (c. 950-1015), a German noblewoman and the wife of King Hugh Capet of France.
3. Adela of Meissen (1160-1211), a German noblewoman and the wife of King Ottokar I of Bohemia.
4. Adela of Normandy (1067-1137), the daughter of William the Conqueror and the wife of Stephen, King of England.
5. Adela of Burgundy (c. 1103-1162), the daughter of Duke Odo I of Burgundy and the wife of King Louis VI of France.
While the name Adela fell out of widespread use in many parts of Europe after the Middle Ages, it continued to be used in some regions, particularly in Germany and parts of Eastern Europe, where it evolved into various regional spellings and forms, such as "Adela" in Polish and "Adéla" in Czech.
People
Adela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adela 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
Adela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,869 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adela 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 38,646 US residents.
Is Adela a common name?
We classify Adela as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,902 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adela most popular?
The single biggest year for Adela was 2015, when 227 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adela is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Adela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adela 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.
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.