Adell
Masculine · “noble”
Adell is given to both — 1,049 boys and 6,214 girls since 1880. See Adell as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Nineteenth-century American clerks respelled French names so they would say themselves. Adele, whose final e is silent and whose weight falls at the end, was written Adell — the doubled l standing in for an accent the English alphabet does not have.
How old is the name Adell?
Adell first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Adell alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 400 people named Adell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adell most popular?
Adell peaked in 1912, reaching #1223 nationally. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From adal to Adell
The story of Adell
Adal is the Frankish word for noble descent, and it opens a long shelf of names: Adalheidis, Adalbert, Adaltrude. Adela was the short form, common in the Frankish and Norman aristocracy and carried into England after the Conquest. French took it as Adele, with an accent telling a French reader that the first e is open rather than silent. English has no such accent, so American records wrote what they heard, and wrote it several ways: Adell, Adelle, Adel. For girls the line runs through French. The small number of boys reaches the same five letters from the other direction, along the row of American surnames — Odell, Cordell, Darnell — that have long supplied boys with given names.
Meaning
noble, from the Germanic adal
Adell is a spelling of Adele, built on the Germanic element adal, meaning noble or of good family. The same element produced Adelaide, Adeline, Adalbert and Adelheid, and it is one of the most productive name-elements in medieval Europe.
How the name formed
- adal
- Adalheidis
- Adela
- Adele
- Adell
Related forms: Adele · Adele · Adela · Adele · Adelia
Pronouncing Adell
uh-DEL
Two syllables with the weight on the second, exactly like Adele. Some families front-load it as ADD-ell; the spelling does not settle which.
Nicknames for Adell
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 192034 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1223reached in 1912
- Change vs 1997
- 0.0%6 in 1998, from 6
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.
Adell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adele in French — same name
- Adele in German — same name
- Adela in Spanish — same name
- Adele in Italian — same name
- Adelia in Portuguese — related form
Adells among us
people named Adell are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Adell sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It says itself: nobody has to be told where the stress falls.
- Three settled short forms, one of which stands alone as a name.
- The root is documented and recognizable in six European languages.
- Adele is the standard spelling, and a singer known by that one word has made it more standard still; expect the second l to be dropped.
- It is strongly represented among the oldest generations, which for some families is exactly the point and for others is the problem.
- The few boys who carry the spelling will be taken for girls on paper.
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What they receive
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Adell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Adells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Adell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Adell in 2025?
- Adell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Adell with classmates?
- Adell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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