Adele
Feminine · “noble”
Adele is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 42,362 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Adele comes from the old Germanic word for "noble," the same root behind Adelaide and Adeline, and it has been carried by countesses, saints and opera characters across a thousand years of European record. Two syllables, ending on a clean consonant, it lands without decoration. The French wrote it with an accent, the Germans gave it three syllables, and the English-speaking world settled on the short, level version.
How old is the name Adele?
Adele was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Adele alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 18,500 people named Adele are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adele most popular?
Adele peaked in 1914, reaching #187 nationally. Today it ranks #751, 564 places below that high. See the whole 1914 chart.
Adele appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Adele
The story of Adele
The name begins as a short form of longer Germanic names built on *adal*, "noble" — the sort of compound name that filled Frankish and Saxon charters in the early medieval centuries. Norman and Frankish noble families used Adela and Adelheid heavily, and one branch of that usage crossed the Channel after the Conquest. French speakers reshaped it as Adèle, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that form spread widely through France, Germany and Italy, then traveled with emigrants to the United States, where the accent was quietly dropped. Johann Strauss II gave the name to the chambermaid in *Die Fledermaus*, which kept it in ears well beyond the countries that used it.
Meaning
noble
From the Germanic element *adal*, "noble," which also gives Adelaide ("noble kind") and Adeline. Adele is the short form that outlived several of the longer ones.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Adela
- Adèle
- Adele
Related forms: Adèle · Adele · Adele · Adela · Adela · Adeline
Pronouncing Adele
uh-DEL
Standard in American English, stress on the second syllable. French Adèle is close to this (ah-DELL); German and Italian give it three syllables, ah-DAY-luh. Expect to state which you mean, once, to most new acquaintances.
Nicknames for Adele
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2011 — Adele's album 21 sweeps the charts
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19181,030 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #187reached in 1914
- Change vs 2022
- +5.2%362 in 2025, from 344
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Adele in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adèle in French — spelling variant
- Adele in German — same name
- Adele in Italian — same name
- Adela in Spanish — related form
- Adela in Polish — related form
- Adeline in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Florida.
Adeles among us
people named Adele are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,440 born in 2025 was named Adele
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Adele 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Adele is headed
Adele should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Adele beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adele in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, single meaning — "noble" — with no competing readings to explain.
- Spelled the same in English, German and Italian, and nearly the same in French and Spanish, so it travels without needing translation.
- Long-established short forms: Addie, Della and Ada all have histories of their own.
- Two syllables and four letters, easy to say and easy to write early in life.
- Sits in a well-known family of names — Adelaide, Adeline, Adela — so it is familiar even to people who have not met one.
- The British singer Adele is known worldwide by her first name alone, and for the foreseeable future most people will think of her first. That association is warm rather than awkward, but it is unavoidable.
- The nearby spellings — Adell, Adelle, Adela, Adèle — mean you will sometimes spell it out, and the French accent tends to vanish in American paperwork anyway.
- People who learned the name in German or Italian will say three syllables where Americans say two. Both are correct, which means occasional gentle correcting.
- It remains strongly represented among much older generations, so some will hear it as a name from their grandparents' era rather than a current one.
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What they receive
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Adele
Feminine · #751 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adeles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,500 people named Adele are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Adele in 2025?
- Adele ranks #751 among US girl names in 2025, with 362 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adele?
- About 1 in every 4,440 US girls born in 2025 was named Adele — 362 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adele with classmates?
- Adele will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Adele's chart?
- Adele climbed after 2011 — Adele's album 21 sweeps the charts.
Ranked beside Adele
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Milan#751 · Bethany#751 · Davina#749 · Karina#749 · Amaris#754 · Rynlee#755 · Soleil#756 · Mikayla#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adele? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adele and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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