Arad
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "wanderer".
Name Census estimates that about 151 living Americans carry the first name Arad. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arad today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arad births was 2015 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arad. 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 Arad with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
151
~ 1 in 2,269,896 Americans
Peak year
2015
13 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,840
Tracked since 2003
Census
Arad in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 262 people with the first name Arad, which placed it at #32,242 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
#32,242
National first-name rank
People counted
262
262 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arad
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arad is White at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (9.2%). 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 Arad 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 Arad at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.4% · 187
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 27
- Two or more races9.2% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 18
- Black or African American1.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Arad: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arad 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 92 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arad remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arad 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 Arad during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arads live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arad
The name Arad has its origins in Hebrew, and it is believed to have been derived from the ancient Semitic root word "arad," which means "to wander" or "to roam." This name can be traced back to biblical times and has been in use among Jewish communities for centuries.
Arad is mentioned in the Bible as the name of a Canaanite city located in the Negev region of ancient Israel. In the Book of Numbers (21:1), it is stated that the Israelites encountered resistance from the king of Arad during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Arad was a ruler of the ancient Aramean city-state of Arpad, located in present-day Syria. This Arad is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions of King Tiglath-Pileser III, who reigned in the 8th century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name Arad gained popularity among Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East. One notable figure with this name was Arad, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a renowned medieval French rabbi and biblical commentator better known as Rashi (1040-1105 CE).
In the modern era, Arad has been a relatively uncommon name, but there have been a few notable individuals who have borne it. For instance, Arad Nir (1936-2008) was an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset, while Arad Winwin (born 1983) is a Thai-American professional poker player.
Another individual of historical significance with the name Arad was Arad Naidi (1938-2014), an Iranian intellectual and dissident who spent several years in prison for his political activities and writings critical of the Iranian government.
Arad has also been the name of several notable rabbis and scholars throughout Jewish history, including Arad Yair (1707-1784), a prominent rabbi and Talmudic scholar from Poland, and Arad Soloveichik (1853-1920), a Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudic scholar who served as the head of the famous Volozhin Yeshiva.
People
Arad + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arad 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
Arad: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arad?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 151 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arad 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 2,269,896 US residents.
Is Arad a common name?
We classify Arad as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 152 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arad most popular?
The single biggest year for Arad was 2015, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arad 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 Arad in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 262 people with the name Arad, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,242 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 Arad 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 Arad?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arad leans strongly male. 250 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 10 female bearers (3.8%). 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 Arad?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arad is White at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (9.2%). 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 Arad most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arad in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (187 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 Arad in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arad a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arad 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 Arad still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arad 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 Arad 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 Arad as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.