Adrian
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "from Hadria" or "dark one".
Name Census estimates that about 266,297 living Americans carry the first name Adrian. It sits at #72 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (94.5% of registrations). The average person named Adrian today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adrian births was 2008 (8,099 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Courtney (266,155).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adrian. 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 Adrian with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
266K
~ 1 in 1,287 Americans
Peak year
2008
8,099 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#72
Tracked since 1880
Census
Adrian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 241,088 people with the first name Adrian, which placed it at #232 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
#232
National first-name rank
People counted
241K
241,088 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
79.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
61.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Adrian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adrian is Hispanic at 61.8%. The next largest groups are White (18.8%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Adrian 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 Adrian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino61.8% · 149,103
- White18.8% · 45,273
- Black or African American12.9% · 31,176
- Two or more races2.9% · 6,880
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 6,855
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1,801
Gender
Gender distribution for Adrian
Adrian leans heavily male at 94.5% of total registrations, but 15,675 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Adrian as a male name
- Ranked #72 in 2024
- 4,617 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (7,937 births)
Adrian as a female name
- Ranked #2,845 in 2024
- 58 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1983 (479 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adrian leans strongly male. 227,808 people counted with this name were male (94.5%), compared with 13,285 female bearers (5.5%).
Popularity
Adrian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adrian from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 67,910 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Adrian remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adrian 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 Adrian during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adrians live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Adrian, while Vermont, Wyoming, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,389 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Adrian
The name Adrian has its origins in the ancient Roman world. It is derived from the Latin name Hadrianus, which itself came from the Roman family name Hadrius. This name is believed to have originated in the town of Adria, located in what is now northern Italy. The name Adria may stem from the Venetic word for sea or water.
Adrian was the name of several notable figures in Roman history. The most famous was the Roman emperor Publius Aelius Hadrianus, better known as Hadrian, who ruled from 117 to 138 AD. Hadrian was known for building Hadrian's Wall in Britain and for his widespread travels throughout the Roman Empire.
The name Adrian also appears in early Christian writings. One of the earliest recorded instances is Saint Adrian of Nicomedia, a Roman officer who was martyred for his Christian faith around 306 AD during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Diocletian.
During the Middle Ages, the name Adrian was used throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, Spain, and England. One notable bearer was Adrian IV, the only English pope, who reigned from 1154 to 1159. Another was Adrian of Utrecht, a 9th-century theologian and scholar who wrote extensively on the liberal arts.
In the Renaissance period, the name Adrian was popular among artists and scholars. The Dutch humanist and philosopher Desiderius Erasmus was baptized as Gerard Geerts but took the name Erasmus after the Greek word for beloved, and Adrian as a second name.
Other notable Adrians throughout history include Adrian Willaert, a 16th-century Flemish composer who worked in Venice and was a key figure in the development of the Venetian School of composers. Adrian Leverkühn was the central character in Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus, loosely based on the life of the composer Adrian Leverkuhn.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Adrian
People
Adrian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adrian 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
Adrian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adrian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 266,297 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adrian 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 1,287 US residents.
Is Adrian a common name?
We classify Adrian as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 283,427 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adrian most popular?
The single biggest year for Adrian was 2008, when 8,099 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adrian is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Adrian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 241,088 people with the name Adrian, or 79.82 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #232 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 Adrian 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 Adrian?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Adrian leans strongly male. 227,808 people counted with this name were male (94.5%), compared with 13,285 female bearers (5.5%). 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 Adrian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Adrian is Hispanic at 61.8%. The next largest groups are White (18.8%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Adrian most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Adrian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.8% (149,103 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 Adrian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adrian a male name?
Yes, 94.5% of people registered as Adrian 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 Adrian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adrian 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 Adrian 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 the name Adrian?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Adrian on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.