Adar
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "glorious" or "mighty".
Name Census estimates that about 156 living Americans carry the first name Adar. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 67.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Adar today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adar births was 2022 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adar. 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 Adar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
156
~ 1 in 2,197,143 Americans
Peak year
2022
17 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,957
Tracked since 1993
Census
Adar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 402 people with the first name Adar, which placed it at #24,093 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
#24,093
National first-name rank
People counted
402
402 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adar is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (39.1%) and Hispanic (9.5%). 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 Adar 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 Adar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.3% · 186
- Black or African American39.1% · 157
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 38
- Two or more races3.2% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Adar
Adar is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 158 total registrations, 106 (67.1%) were male and 52 (32.9%) were female.
Adar as a male name
- Ranked #8,957 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (11 births)
Adar as a female name
- Ranked #13,605 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2019 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adar on both sides of the split. Of the 402 people counted with this name, 165 were male (41.0%) and 237 were female (59.0%).
Popularity
Adar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adar 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 61 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adar 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 Adar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adar
The name Adar has its origins in ancient Semitic languages and cultures of the Middle East. It is believed to be derived from the Akkadian word "adru," which means "magnificent" or "glorious." The name can also be traced back to the Phoenician name "Adir," meaning "strong" or "mighty."
One of the earliest known references to the name Adar can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a month in the Jewish calendar. The month of Adar is the twelfth and final month of the Hebrew year, usually occurring in February or March. This suggests that the name has been in use for centuries, dating back to ancient Israelite and Jewish traditions.
In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, Adar was also the name of a god associated with storms, rain, and fertility. This god was often depicted as a warrior carrying a thunderbolt, and his cult was particularly prominent in the city of Assur, which was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Adar was Adar-Malik, an Aramean king who ruled in the 9th century BCE in the region of modern-day Syria. Another notable historical figure was Adar, a Babylonian official mentioned in the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, who served under King Darius I of Persia in the 5th century BCE.
In the Islamic tradition, Adar is also a name that has been used, although it is less common than in some other cultures. One notable bearer of the name was Adar al-Nafi, a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist who lived in the 8th century CE in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
Moving forward in history, the name Adar has been borne by several notable individuals, including Adar Nagarit, an Indian painter and artist who lived in the 17th century and was known for his works depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. Additionally, Adar Chand Thakur was an Indian freedom fighter who participated in the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule in the early 20th century.
Another notable bearer of the name was Adar Singh Sandhu, a Sikh military officer who served in the British Indian Army during World War II and was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British Empire, for his bravery and heroism in battle.
While these examples span different eras and cultures, they illustrate the enduring presence and significance of the name Adar throughout history, reflecting its ancient roots and the diverse traditions in which it has been embraced.
People
Adar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adar 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
Adar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 156 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adar 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 2,197,143 US residents.
Is Adar a common name?
We classify Adar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 158 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adar most popular?
The single biggest year for Adar was 2022, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adar is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 402 people with the name Adar, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,093 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 Adar 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 Adar?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Adar on both sides of the split. Of the 402 people counted with this name, 165 were male (41.0%) and 237 were female (59.0%). 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 Adar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adar is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (39.1%) and Hispanic (9.5%). 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 Adar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.3% (186 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 Adar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adar a male name?
Yes, 67.1% of people registered as Adar 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 Adar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adar 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 Adar 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 Adar as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.