Adrian

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Adrian

Say it: AY-dree-un

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Latin Hadrianus 'from Hadria', a town in northern Italy that gave its name to the Adriatic Sea.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Borne by a Roman emperor and several popes, it has been used across Europe since the Middle Ages and rose steadily in the US from the 1960s.

Its wave through time

In the United States

0123418801900192019401960198020002020Girls 1983Boys 2008per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 263,531 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 2008, about 1 in 257 boys
  • 5,313 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
  2. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

LatinEnglishAmericanSpanishPolishRomanian

The family of the name

Other spellings: Adrien, Hadrian

FrenchAdrien
ItalianAdriano
SpanishAdrián
PolishAdrian

Famous bearers

  • Hadrian, Roman emperor
  • Adrian IV, the only English pope

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
  • Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.