Adlai
Hebrew name meaning "my refuge is God" or "God is just".
Name Census estimates that about 585 living Americans carry the first name Adlai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Adlai today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adlai births was 1952 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adlai. 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
585
~ 1 in 585,905 Americans
Peak year
1952
39 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,885
Tracked since 1891
Census
Adlai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 674 people with the first name Adlai, which placed it at #16,648 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
#16,648
National first-name rank
People counted
674
674 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adlai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adlai is White at 50.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.6%) and Black (17.1%). 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 Adlai 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 Adlai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.4% · 340
- Hispanic or Latino19.6% · 132
- Black or African American17.1% · 115
- Two or more races6.2% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Adlai
Adlai leans heavily male at 88.1% of total registrations, but 81 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Adlai as a male name
- Ranked #9,885 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (39 births)
Adlai as a female name
- Ranked #11,167 in 2021
- 8 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2014 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adlai leans strongly male. 568 people counted with this name were male (84.3%), compared with 106 female bearers (15.7%).
Popularity
Adlai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adlai from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 196 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adlai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adlai 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 Adlai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adlais live
Origin
Meaning and history of Adlai
The given name Adlai has Hebrew origins and can be traced back to the biblical era. It is derived from the Hebrew word "Adli," which means "God's ornament" or "God is just." The name is mentioned in the Old Testament, where Adli was a prophet and a priest during the reign of King David.
The earliest recorded use of the name Adlai can be found in the Book of Chronicles, where Adli is listed as one of the priests who served in the Temple of Jerusalem. This suggests that the name has been in use for over 2,500 years.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Adlai. One of the most famous was Adlai Stevenson I (1835-1914), an American politician and statesman who served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland.
Another prominent figure was Adlai Stevenson II (1900-1965), the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I. He was a prominent American politician who served as the governor of Illinois and was twice the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, in 1952 and 1956.
In the realm of literature, Adlai E. Stevenson (1914-1965) was an American author and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations during the 1960s. He was known for his work on international affairs and human rights.
Adlai Ewing Brown (1892-1962) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in the United States. He represented the plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.
In the field of music, Adlai Alexander Werton (1906-1978) was an American composer and conductor known for his contributions to the development of modern dance music. He collaborated with renowned choreographers such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey.
While the name Adlai has Hebrew origins and a rich historical background, it has been used across various cultures and regions over the centuries, with individuals bearing this name making significant contributions in various fields.
People
Adlai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adlai 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
Adlai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adlai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 585 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adlai 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 585,905 US residents.
Is Adlai a common name?
We classify Adlai as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 683 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adlai most popular?
The single biggest year for Adlai was 1952, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adlai is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adlai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 674 people with the name Adlai, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,648 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 Adlai 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 Adlai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adlai leans strongly male. 568 people counted with this name were male (84.3%), compared with 106 female bearers (15.7%). 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 Adlai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adlai is White at 50.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.6%) and Black (17.1%). 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 Adlai most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adlai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.4% (340 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 Adlai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adlai a male name?
Yes, 88.1% of people registered as Adlai 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 Adlai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adlai 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 Adlai 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 share the name Adlai?
Want to know how many people have the name Adlai? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.