Adolf
A masculine name of German origin meaning "noble wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 289 living Americans carry the first name Adolf. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Adolf today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adolf births was 1918 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adolf. 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 Adolf is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Adolfs were born before 1965.
People living today
289
~ 1 in 1,186,001 Americans
Peak year
1918
56 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1990 SSA rank
#8,132
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adolf in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,084 people with the first name Adolf, which placed it at #11,706 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
#11,706
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,084 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adolf
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adolf is White at 64.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.9%) and Black (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 Adolf 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 Adolf at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.3% · 697
- Hispanic or Latino20.9% · 227
- Black or African American9.2% · 100
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 44
- Two or more races0.9% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 6
Popularity
Adolf: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adolf 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 393 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
Adolf 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 Adolf during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adolfs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Adolf, while Wisconsin, Michigan, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adolf
The given name Adolf has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically Old High German. It is a compound name derived from the root words "ado" meaning "noble" or "sublime" and "wolf" meaning "wolf." Together, the name Adolf translates to "noble wolf."
The name can be traced back to the early medieval period, around the 5th to 9th centuries CE. It was a popular name among the Germanic tribes that inhabited various regions of Europe, including present-day Germany, Austria, and parts of France and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Adolf can be found in the Codex Traditionum Corbeiensium, a medieval manuscript from the 9th century that documents land transactions and donations in the region of Westphalia, Germany.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Adolf. One of the most famous was Adolf of Nassau (c. 1292-1298), a medieval German nobleman and the last reigning King of Germany from the House of Nassau.
Another notable Adolf was Adolf Frederick (1710-1771), the King of Sweden from 1751 until his death. He was known for his efforts to promote the arts and sciences in Sweden during the Age of Liberty.
In the realm of literature, Adolf Wilbrandt (1837-1913) was a German poet and playwright who served as the director of the Vienna Burgtheater from 1881 to 1887.
Adolf Hurwitz (1859-1919) was a German mathematician famous for his contributions to the theory of automorphic functions and the study of Riemann surfaces.
Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was an influential Austrian architect and one of the pioneers of modern architecture. His notable works include the Steiner House in Vienna and the Villa Müller in Prague.
It is important to note that while the name Adolf has a rich historical background, its connotations were significantly impacted by the notorious German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), whose actions during World War II and the Holocaust tarnished the name's reputation in many parts of the world.
People
Adolf + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adolf 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
Adolf: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adolf?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 289 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adolf 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 1,186,001 US residents.
Is Adolf a common name?
We classify Adolf as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,394 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adolf most popular?
The single biggest year for Adolf was 1918, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adolf is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adolf in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,084 people with the name Adolf, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,706 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 Adolf 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 Adolf?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adolf appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,083 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 Adolf?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adolf is White at 64.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.9%) and Black (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 Adolf most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Adolf in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.3% (697 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 Adolf in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adolf a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adolf 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 Adolf still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adolf 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 Adolf 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 Adolf as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.