Adonai
A Hebrew name meaning "my Lord" or "master", used as a substitute for the unspoken name of God.
Name Census estimates that about 1,360 living Americans carry the first name Adonai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Adonai today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adonai births was 2024 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adonai. 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 Adonai with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Adonai is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 252,025 Americans
Peak year
2024
106 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,695
Tracked since 1990
Census
Adonai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 983 people with the first name Adonai, which placed it at #12,598 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
#12,598
National first-name rank
People counted
983
983 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
52.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adonai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adonai is Hispanic at 52.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.2%) and White (6.5%). 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 Adonai 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 Adonai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino52.2% · 513
- Black or African American36.2% · 356
- White6.5% · 64
- Two or more races3.6% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Adonai
Adonai leans heavily male at 83.2% of total registrations, but 230 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Adonai as a male name
- Ranked #1,695 in 2024
- 98 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (98 births)
Adonai as a female name
- Ranked #11,085 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adonai leans strongly male. 797 people counted with this name were male (81.2%), compared with 185 female bearers (18.8%).
Popularity
Adonai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adonai from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 596 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adonai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adonai 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 Adonai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adonais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Adonai, while Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adonai
The name Adonai has Hebrew origins and is derived from the Hebrew word "adon" which means "lord" or "master". It is considered a sacred name for God in the Hebrew Bible and in Judaism. The name Adonai is used as a substitute for the ineffable Hebrew name of God, which is written but not pronounced.
The earliest recorded use of Adonai as a reference to God dates back to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE. In the Hebrew Bible, the name Adonai is used frequently, often in combination with other names for God, such as "Adonai Elohim" (Lord God).
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Adonai was Adonai ben David, a Jewish philosopher who lived in the 12th century CE in Provence, France. He was known for his teachings on Jewish mysticism and his commentary on the Torah.
Another notable individual with the name Adonai was Adonai Abravanel, a Jewish philosopher and statesman who lived in the 15th century CE in Spain and Italy. He was a prominent figure in the Jewish community and wrote extensively on Jewish philosophy and theology.
In the 16th century CE, Adonai Reuben was a Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Poland. He was known for his work on the Talmud and his commentaries on Jewish law.
In the 18th century, Adonai Isaac was a Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Germany. He was known for his work on Jewish mysticism and his commentaries on the Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah.
Finally, in the 19th century, Adonai Hirsch was a Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Germany. He was a prominent figure in the Jewish Enlightenment movement and was known for his efforts to promote Jewish education and culture.
People
Adonai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adonai 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
Adonai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adonai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,360 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adonai 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 252,025 US residents.
Is Adonai a common name?
We classify Adonai as "Rare". It ranks above 91.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,372 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adonai most popular?
The single biggest year for Adonai was 2024, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adonai is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adonai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 983 people with the name Adonai, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,598 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 Adonai 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 Adonai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adonai leans strongly male. 797 people counted with this name were male (81.2%), compared with 185 female bearers (18.8%). 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 Adonai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adonai is Hispanic at 52.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.2%) and White (6.5%). 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 Adonai most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Adonai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.2% (513 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 Adonai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adonai a male name?
Yes, 83.2% of people registered as Adonai 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 Adonai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adonai 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 Adonai 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 Adonai?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.