Adline
A feminine name derived from Adele, meaning "noble" or "nobility".
Name Census estimates that about 156 living Americans carry the first name Adline. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adline today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adline births was 1919 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adline. 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 Adline is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Adlines were born before 1960.
People living today
156
~ 1 in 2,197,143 Americans
Peak year
1919
37 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1991 SSA rank
#13,165
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adline in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 456 people with the first name Adline, which placed it at #22,008 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
#22,008
National first-name rank
People counted
456
456 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adline
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adline is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.7%) and Hispanic (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 Adline 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 Adline at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.6% · 313
- White16.7% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 17
- Two or more races1.1% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Adline: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adline 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 274 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
Adline 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 Adline during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adlines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Adline, while Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adline
The name Adline has its roots in the ancient Germanic languages, particularly in the Old English and Old Norse traditions. It is believed to have originated around the 8th or 9th century CE, during the height of the Viking Age.
The name Adline is thought to be a combination of two separate words - "Ad" and "line." The prefix "Ad" is derived from the Old English word "aed," which means "rich" or "prosperous." The suffix "line" likely comes from the Old Norse word "lina," which means "soft" or "gentle."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Adline can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership and taxation commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in an entry referring to a landowner in the county of Essex, England.
Throughout medieval Europe, the name Adline was relatively uncommon but did appear in various historical records and chronicles. One notable individual bearing this name was Adline of Poitiers, a 12th-century French noblewoman and patron of the arts, who was known for her support of poets and troubadours.
In the 15th century, an Italian philosopher and theologian named Adline Bracciolini gained recognition for his writings on ethics and moral philosophy. He was born in Florence in 1414 and lived until 1492.
During the Renaissance period, Adline de Beauvais, a French painter and illuminator, was celebrated for her intricate miniature paintings and illustrations in religious manuscripts. She worked in the city of Paris in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
In more recent times, Adline Genée, a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer, achieved fame in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was born in Copenhagen in 1857 and passed away in 1928, leaving a lasting legacy in the world of classical ballet.
While not as commonly used today as it once was, the name Adline still holds a rich historical significance, reflecting its origins in the Germanic languages and its association with qualities such as prosperity, gentleness, and artistic expression.
People
Adline + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adline 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
Adline: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adline?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 156 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adline 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 Adline a common name?
We classify Adline 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, 1,177 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adline most popular?
The single biggest year for Adline was 1919, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adline is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adline in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 456 people with the name Adline, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,008 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 Adline 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 Adline?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adline appears almost entirely female. Of the 461 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Adline?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adline is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.7%) and Hispanic (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 Adline most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Adline in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (313 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 Adline in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adline a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adline in the SSA data are female. 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 Adline still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adline 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 Adline 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 are named Adline?
Want to know how many Americans are named Adline? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.