Adelie
A feminine name of Old French origin meaning "noble kind".
Name Census estimates that about 661 living Americans carry the first name Adelie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adelie today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adelie births was 2013 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adelie. 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 Adelie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
661
~ 1 in 518,539 Americans
Peak year
2013
51 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,615
Tracked since 2003
Census
Adelie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 512 people with the first name Adelie, which placed it at #20,244 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
#20,244
National first-name rank
People counted
512
512 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adelie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adelie is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.1%). 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 Adelie 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 Adelie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.0% · 333
- Hispanic or Latino21.7% · 111
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.1% · 31
- Two or more races5.3% · 27
- Black or African American2.0% · 10
Popularity
Adelie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adelie from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 381 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adelie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adelie 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 Adelie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adelies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Adelie, while Virginia, New York, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adelie
The name Adelie has its origins in the French language and culture. It is derived from the Germanic root "Adal," meaning noble or nobility. The name first emerged in the early medieval period, around the 8th or 9th century CE, in the region of modern-day France.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Adelie can be found in the ancient Frankish chronicles, where it is mentioned as the name of a noblewoman who lived during the reign of Charlemagne. It is believed that this early usage of the name contributed to its association with nobility and high social status.
In the 11th century, the name Adelie gained further prominence when it was adopted by a prominent French noble family, the House of Burgundy. Several members of this influential dynasty bore the name, including Adelie de Bourgogne, who lived in the late 11th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and her involvement in the Crusades.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the name Adelie remained popular among the French nobility and aristocracy. Notable historical figures who bore this name include Adelie de Montfort (1192-1246), a powerful Countess of Montfort and a key figure in the Albigensian Crusade, and Adelie de Champagne (1160-1206), a French noblewoman and patron of the arts.
In the 18th century, the name Adelie gained further recognition when it was chosen by the French explorer and naturalist Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) for a species of penguin he discovered during his Antarctic expeditions. The Adelie penguin was named in honor of his wife, Adelie Dumont d'Urville, further cementing the name's place in history.
Other notable individuals who bore the name Adelie include Adelie Rieu (1853-1932), a French writer and feminist activist, and Adelie Landry Hine (1871-1937), an American educator and suffragist who played a significant role in the women's rights movement in the United States.
While the name Adelie has its roots in French nobility and history, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, albeit with varying spellings and pronunciations. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its rich historical significance and its association with nobility, grace, and strength.
People
Adelie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adelie 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
Adelie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adelie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 661 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adelie 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 518,539 US residents.
Is Adelie a common name?
We classify Adelie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 666 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adelie most popular?
The single biggest year for Adelie was 2013, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adelie is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adelie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 512 people with the name Adelie, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,244 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 Adelie 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 Adelie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adelie appears almost entirely female. Of the 511 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Adelie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adelie is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.1%). 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 Adelie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adelie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (333 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 Adelie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adelie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adelie 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 Adelie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adelie 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 Adelie 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 Adelie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.