Adelbert
A Germanic masculine name derived from the elements "adel" meaning "noble" and "beraht" meaning "bright".
Name Census estimates that about 583 living Americans carry the first name Adelbert. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adelbert today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adelbert births was 1918 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adelbert. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Adelbert is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Adelberts were born before 1968.
People living today
583
~ 1 in 587,915 Americans
Peak year
1918
86 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1995 SSA rank
#8,877
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adelbert in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 616 people with the first name Adelbert, which placed it at #17,727 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
#17,727
National first-name rank
People counted
616
616 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adelbert
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adelbert is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Adelbert 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 Adelbert at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.3% · 433
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.9% · 61
- Black or African American9.6% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 18
- Two or more races1.3% · 8
Popularity
Adelbert: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adelbert from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 522 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adelbert 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 Adelbert during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adelberts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. New York, Ohio, Michigan recorded the most babies named Adelbert, while California, Nebraska, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adelbert
The name Adelbert has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the elements "adal" meaning noble and "beraht" meaning bright or shining. It is believed to have emerged during the early medieval period, around the 6th or 7th century CE, particularly among the Frankish and Saxon peoples of what is now Germany and parts of France.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Adelbert I, Count of Bamberg, who lived in the late 9th century and played a significant role in the expansion of the Duchy of Franconia. Another notable figure was Saint Adelbert of Prague, a Bohemian missionary and bishop who was martyred in 997 CE during his efforts to convert the pagan Prussians to Christianity.
During the Middle Ages, the name Adelbert gained popularity among the nobility and aristocracy of various European regions. This included Adelbert II, Count of Sponheim, who lived in the 11th century, and Adelbert III, Count of Lenzburg, who lived in the 12th century and was a prominent figure in the Holy Roman Empire.
In later centuries, the name continued to be used, although less commonly. One notable bearer was Adelbert von Chamisso, a French-German poet and botanist born in 1781, known for his works such as "Peter Schlemihl's Wondrous Story" and his contributions to the study of natural history.
Another significant figure was Adelbert Ames, an American soldier and politician born in 1835, who served as a Union general during the American Civil War and later became a respected statesman and senator from Mississippi.
While not as widely used today, the name Adelbert still holds historical significance and continues to be associated with its noble and illustrious origins in the Germanic linguistic and cultural traditions.
People
Adelbert + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adelbert 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
Adelbert: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adelbert?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 583 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adelbert 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 587,915 US residents.
Is Adelbert a common name?
We classify Adelbert 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, 2,373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adelbert most popular?
The single biggest year for Adelbert was 1918, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adelbert is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adelbert in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 616 people with the name Adelbert, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,727 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 Adelbert 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 Adelbert?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adelbert appears almost entirely male. Of the 619 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Adelbert?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adelbert is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Adelbert most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adelbert in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.3% (433 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 Adelbert in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adelbert a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adelbert 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 Adelbert still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adelbert 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 Adelbert 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 Americans are named Adelbert?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Adelbert on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.