Head to head · Boys' names
Adonis vs Ayden
#241 vs #257 in 2025
Adonis is a whisker ahead (#241 vs #257 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Adonis is holding its place on the charts, Ayden is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Adonis leads 3 measures of 6; Ayden leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Adonis #4179, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1920s: Adonis #3724, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1930s: Adonis #3613, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1940s: Adonis #3525, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1950s: Adonis #2704, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1960s: Adonis #2576, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1970s: Adonis #1465, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1980s: Adonis #1359, Ayden — — Adonis higher
- 1990s: Adonis #883, Ayden #3469 — Adonis higher
- 2000s: Adonis #814, Ayden #242 — Ayden higher
- 2010s: Adonis #565, Ayden #86 — Ayden higher
- 2020s: Adonis #215, Ayden #183 — Ayden higher
Adonis stood higher in 9 of 12 decades; Ayden has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Adonis | Ayden |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #4179 | — |
| 1920s | #3724 | — |
| 1930s | #3613 | — |
| 1940s | #3525 | — |
| 1950s | #2704 | — |
| 1960s | #2576 | — |
| 1970s | #1465 | — |
| 1980s | #1359 | — |
| 1990s | #883 | #3469 |
| 2000s | #814 | #242 |
| 2010s | #565 | #86 |
| 2020s | #215 | #183 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Adonis
Not charting outside the US.
Ayden
- France#24
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Adonis
lord
The Greek name comes from the Semitic title ʼadōn, "lord" — the same root behind Hebrew Adonai. In Greek it stopped being a title and became the name of a single mythological youth.
ʼadōn (Semitic, "lord") → Adōnis (Greek) → Adonis (Latin) → Adonis (English)
How it traveled
Adonis began as a Semitic word for "lord" and crossed into Greek as the name of a beautiful young hunter loved by Aphrodite and killed by a wild boar — a figure worshipped in rites of mourning and renewal around the eastern Mediterranean. The archaic Greek poet Sappho left a surviving fragment lamenting him, and the Romans carried the story on in Latin.
Ayden
little fire
The root is Old Irish Aodh (also spelled Áed), meaning fire; Aodhán adds the affectionate diminutive, giving "little fire" or "fiery one". The Ayden spelling is a modern English respelling of that line rather than a separate name with a separate meaning.
Aodh → Aodhán → Áedán → Aidan → Ayden
How it traveled
The name begins with Old Irish Aodh, a name so common in early Ireland that it fills annals and genealogies, and its diminutive Aodhán, anglicized as Áedán and then Aidan. The seventh-century Irish monk who founded the monastery on Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria carried that earlier form, which is much of why the name survived in Britain as well as Ireland.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Adonis
uh-DON-iss
Also heard as uh-DOH-nis, with a long middle vowel. Modern Greek stresses the first syllable instead: AH-thoh-nees. In Spanish it is ah-DOH-nees.
- Don — Informal short form; also a long-established given name in its own right.
- Addy — Informal, used mostly by family and in early childhood; shared with Adam and Adrian.
- Donnie — Informal and affectionate; stands alone as a given name for older generations.
- Adi — Informal short form, common where the name is used in Spanish-speaking families.
Ayden
AY-den
Two syllables, stress on the first. The y does no extra work — it is said exactly like Aidan and Aiden, and the spelling gives no one trouble reading it aloud.
- Ayd — The usual clipped form among family and friends; strictly informal and rarely written down.
- Aydie — Affectionate household form, mostly used with younger children.
- A.J. — Initial nickname where the middle name supplies the J; used socially and sometimes carried into adulthood.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Adonis if you want…
- a name most people already know#241 in 2025, 1,462 babies that year
- a name with more sound in itAdonis runs 3 syllables, Ayden 2
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 71% for Ayden
Choose Ayden if you want…
- a name fewer children share#257 in 2025 — ayden will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name past its most crowded yearsAyden is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesAyden is 2 syllables to Adonis's 3
- a name that charts abroad tooAyden is on the national lists of France
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Adonis
Strengths
- A spelling almost everyone has already seen, in myth, in Shakespeare, or in the dictionary — rarely needs to be spelled out twice.
- Works unchanged in Spanish, French and Portuguese, which matters in the regions where it is strongest.
- Yields Don and Donnie, short forms that have stood alone as names for generations.
To consider
- In English, "an adonis" is a plain-language term for a very handsome man. Most people will make that connection at least once, and a boy may hear comments about his looks framed by his name — worth knowing in advance.
- The myth itself ends badly: Adonis is gored by a boar and mourned. It is a love story and a death story at the same time, which some families find rich and others would rather not carry.
- Two pronunciations circulate in the US, uh-DON-iss and uh-DOH-nis, so expect to correct people occasionally or simply to accept both.
Ayden
Strengths
- Reads correctly on sight: anyone seeing Ayden written will say it the right way the first time.
- Sits on a documented Irish line going back to Old Irish Aodh, so a modern spelling comes with a real and traceable history.
- Recognized well beyond the US — the Aidan family is at home in Ireland, Britain and France, and Ayden itself charts in France.
To consider
- Aiden is the more common spelling in the US, so expect a lifetime of gentle correcting — forms, teachers, coffee cups. Some families lean into it and simply spell it out as a matter of course.
- The whole rhyming set — Aiden, Jayden, Brayden, Kayden, Kaden — is close enough that mix-ups happen in a classroom or on a roster, even when there is no other Ayden.
- The name's wave is very recent, so it reads as belonging to a particular young generation rather than as a name passed down. That fades as the children who carry it grow up.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Adonis
40%chance Adonis feels dated by 2040
Adonis sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Ayden
71%chance Ayden feels dated by 2040
Ayden is coming down from a big peak (#68 in 2012). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Adonis and Ayden in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Adonis and Ayden?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Three-syllable names with room to move
- Hero and god names for boys
- Names ending in -s
- Names ending in -is
- all guides
Where Adonis and Ayden each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Adonis or Ayden — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Adonis or Ayden?
- Adonis, in 2025: Adonis ranked #241 with 1,462 babies; Ayden ranked #257 with 1,343 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Adonis or Ayden?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Adonis moved down 18 places; Ayden moved down 135 places.
- Which is the older name, Adonis or Ayden?
- Adonis entered the US charts in 1918; Ayden entered the US charts in 1990. On the American record, Adonis is the older name.
- How many people are named Adonis and Ayden?
- About 21,500 people named Adonis are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 88,500 people named Ayden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Adoniss or Aydens in the classroom?
- Adonis will almost certainly be the only one in school. Ayden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Adonis, Ayden and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap