Adi
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "the first" or "beginning".
Name Census estimates that about 1,652 living Americans carry the first name Adi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Adi today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adi births was 2008 (66 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adi. 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 Adi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Adi sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 207,478 Americans
Peak year
2008
66 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,264
Tracked since 1971
Census
Adi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,968 people with the first name Adi, which placed it at #5,692 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
#5,692
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,968 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adi is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.8%) and Hispanic (14.0%). 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 Adi 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 Adi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.8% · 1,746
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.8% · 589
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 416
- Two or more races3.6% · 107
- Black or African American3.4% · 100
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Adi
Adi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,682 total registrations, 755 (44.9%) were male and 927 (55.1%) were female.
Adi as a male name
- Ranked #3,264 in 2024
- 36 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (37 births)
Adi as a female name
- Ranked #6,616 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adi on both sides of the split. Of the 2,972 people counted with this name, 1,427 were male (48.0%) and 1,545 were female (52.0%).
Popularity
Adi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adi from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 525 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adi 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 Adi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Adi, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 117 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adi
The name Adi has its origins in the Sanskrit language of ancient India and can be traced back to around the 5th century BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "adi," which means "first" or "primordial." The name was commonly used in Hindu texts and scriptures, such as the Vedas and the Upanishads.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Adi is found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, where it was the name of a character known as Adi Shankara, a renowned Hindu philosopher and theologian who lived between 788-820 CE. He is credited with reviving and consolidating the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, a prominent school of Hindu philosophy.
During the medieval period, the name Adi gained popularity among Muslim communities in South Asia, particularly in regions like modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this context, it was often used as a shortened form of names like Adiluddin or Adinath.
In the 19th century, Adi Brahmo Samaj, a renowned social and religious reformist movement in India, was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The name Adi was significant in this context as it represented the concept of "original" or "primordial" truth.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Adi:
1. Adi Shankara (788-820 CE), the renowned Hindu philosopher and theologian mentioned earlier.
2. Adi Granth (1604 CE), the original scripture of the Sikh religion, compiled by Guru Arjan Dev.
3. Adi Darmawan (born 1962), an Indonesian businessman and philanthropist.
4. Adi Godrej (born 1942), an Indian industrialist and businessman, chairman of the Godrej Group.
5. Adi Shamir (born 1952), an Israeli cryptographer and co-inventor of the RSA encryption algorithm.
The name Adi has maintained its significance and popularity across various cultures and religions, particularly in South Asia, where it continues to be used as a meaningful and respected name.
People
Adi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adi 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
Adi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,652 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adi 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 207,478 US residents.
Is Adi a common name?
We classify Adi as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,682 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adi most popular?
The single biggest year for Adi was 2008, when 66 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adi is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,968 people with the name Adi, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,692 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 Adi 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 Adi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adi on both sides of the split. Of the 2,972 people counted with this name, 1,427 were male (48.0%) and 1,545 were female (52.0%). 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 Adi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adi is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.8%) and Hispanic (14.0%). 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 Adi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (1,746 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 Adi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adi a female name?
Yes, 55.1% of people registered as Adi 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 Adi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adi 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 Adi 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 Adi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.