Adonis
A Greek given name derived from the Semitic word "adon", meaning "lord".
Name Census estimates that about 19,917 living Americans carry the first name Adonis. It sits at #206 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Adonis today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adonis births was 2023 (2,107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adonis. 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 Adonis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Adonis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 101 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Adonis is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,209 Americans
Peak year
2023
2,107 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#206
Tracked since 1918
Census
Adonis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,674 people with the first name Adonis, which placed it at #2,357 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
#2,357
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,674 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adonis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adonis is Black at 42.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.0%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Adonis 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 Adonis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.2% · 4,509
- Hispanic or Latino38.0% · 4,052
- Two or more races7.4% · 794
- White7.0% · 752
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 450
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 117
Gender
Gender distribution for Adonis
Out of the 20,218 babies given the name Adonis since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Adonis as a male name
- Ranked #206 in 2024
- 1,713 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (2,101 births)
Adonis as a female name
- Ranked #13,490 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1997 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adonis leans strongly male. 10,475 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 199 female bearers (1.9%).
Popularity
Adonis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adonis from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 8,842 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adonis 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 Adonis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adonis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Adonis, while Montana, South Dakota, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 386 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adonis
The name Adonis has its origins in Greek mythology, deriving from the Phoenician word "Adon," meaning "lord" or "master." The name is associated with the Greek god of beauty, desire, and vegetation.
According to Greek legends, Adonis was a strikingly handsome youth who was loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. The myth of Adonis is believed to have originated in ancient Phoenicia, modern-day Lebanon, and later spread to Greece and other parts of the ancient world.
In Greek mythology, Adonis was born from an incestuous union between Myrrha (or Smyrna) and her father, the king of Cyprus. After being cursed by the gods for her actions, Myrrha was transformed into a myrrh tree, and Adonis was born from the tree's bark. The infant Adonis was discovered and raised by Aphrodite.
The earliest recorded references to Adonis can be found in the works of ancient Greek poets, such as Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," as well as in the writings of the Greek lyric poet Sappho, who lived around 600 BCE. The cult of Adonis became widely popular in ancient Greece and was celebrated annually with festivals and rituals.
One of the earliest notable figures named Adonis was Adonis of Byblos, a legendary ruler of the Phoenician city of Byblos, who is believed to have lived around the 9th or 8th century BCE. Another early figure was Adonis of Pella, a Greek philosopher and mathematician from the 4th century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name Adonis was used by some poets and writers as a symbol of male beauty and desire. One of the most famous literary works featuring the name is William Shakespeare's narrative poem "Venus and Adonis," published in 1593.
Other notable historical figures named Adonis include Adonis Hugonis (c. 1533–1635), a French theologian and writer; Adonis Villalpando (1617–1669), a Spanish painter; and Adonis Stevenson (1835–1914), an American politician and Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland.
The name Adonis has continued to be used throughout history, often associated with ideas of male beauty, youth, and passion. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its rich mythological origins and the enduring appeal of the Greek myth.
People
Adonis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adonis 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
Adonis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adonis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,917 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adonis 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 17,209 US residents.
Is Adonis a common name?
We classify Adonis as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 20,218 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adonis most popular?
The single biggest year for Adonis was 2023, when 2,107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adonis 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 Adonis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,674 people with the name Adonis, or 3.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,357 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 Adonis 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 Adonis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adonis leans strongly male. 10,475 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 199 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Adonis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adonis is Black at 42.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.0%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Adonis most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Adonis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.2% (4,509 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 Adonis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adonis a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Adonis 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 Adonis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adonis 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 Adonis 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 Adonis?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.