Adelard
A Germanic masculine name meaning "noble person" or "person of noble character".
Name Census estimates that about 34 living Americans carry the first name Adelard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adelard today is around 93 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adelard births was 1919 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adelard. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Adelard is about 93 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Adelards were born before 1943.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Adelard. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
34
~ 1 in 10,081,010 Americans
Peak year
1919
33 babies that year
Average age
93
years old
1947 SSA rank
#3,735
Tracked since 1884
Popularity
Adelard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adelard from the 1880s through to the 1940s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 175 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adelard 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 Adelard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adelards live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island recorded the most babies named Adelard, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adelard
The given name Adelard is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German elements 'adel' meaning 'noble' and 'hart' meaning 'hardy' or 'brave'. It was particularly popular in medieval France and England during the 11th to 13th centuries.
The name Adelard can be traced back to the Latin name 'Adalardus', which was in use among the Franks during the Carolingian period. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Adelard of Ghent, a Flemish philosopher and translator who lived in the late 12th century. He is known for his Latin translations of Arabic scientific texts, contributing to the transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to medieval Europe.
Another notable figure with this name was Adelard of Bath, an English scholar and traveler who lived in the early 12th century. He visited various parts of the Mediterranean region, including Greece and Asia Minor, and brought back knowledge of Arabic learning to England. His writings on natural philosophy and astronomy had a significant influence on medieval European thought.
In the 13th century, Adelard of Treviso, an Italian mathematician and philosopher, made important contributions to the development of European mathematics and logic. He is credited with introducing Arabic numerals and the concept of the decimal system to Europe.
During the late 12th and early 13th centuries, Adelard was a relatively common name among the Norman nobility in England. One notable bearer was Adelard of Ipswich, an English nobleman and landowner who held estates in Suffolk and Norfolk.
In the late 13th century, there was a French nobleman named Adelard de Monteil who served as a knight and military leader during the Aragonese Crusade against the Crown of Aragon in the Mediterranean region.
While the name Adelard fell out of widespread use in more recent centuries, it has left a legacy in its various spelling variations, such as Adelardus, Adelhart, and Aylard, which can be found in historical records and literature across Europe.
People
Adelard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adelard 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
Adelard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adelard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adelard 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 10,081,010 US residents.
Is Adelard a common name?
We classify Adelard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 488 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adelard most popular?
The single biggest year for Adelard was 1919, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adelard is about 93 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Adelard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adelard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adelard 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 Adelard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adelard 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 Adelard 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Adelard?
Want to know how many Americans are named Adelard? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.