Adi
Masculine · “first”
Adi is given to both — 779 boys and 945 girls since 1880. See Adi as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Adi is Sanskrit for the first, Hebrew for an ornament, and an Indonesian word for excellence — three unconnected languages at three letters.
How old is the name Adi?
Adi first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Adi alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 800 people named Adi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adi most popular?
Adi peaked in 2006, reaching #3083 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 1,166 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Adi
Ours, offered as ours. The Sanskrit adi is the more consequential of the three: it opens Adi Shankara, the eighth-century philosopher who systematised Advaita Vedanta, and Adivasi, the term for India's indigenous peoples — the original inhabitants. Hebrew adi is a jewel and gives modern Israeli names for both sexes. Javanese adi means excellent and appears in an enormous number of Indonesian names. Three traditions, one syllable, no relation.
Meaningscholars disagree
first; ornament; excellent
Sanskrit adi means first or beginning and opens Adivasi and Adi Shankara. Hebrew adi is an ornament or jewel. Indonesian and Javanese adi means excellent or superior. All three are documented and unrelated.
Pronouncing Adi
AH-dee
Two syllables, first stressed. Hebrew and Indonesian give the same shape.
Nicknames for Adi
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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 200837 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3083reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%24 in 2025, from 36
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.
Adi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adi in Sanskrit — same name
- Adi in Hebrew — related form
- Adi in Indonesian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Adis among us
people named Adi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Adi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Adi
- #4249
- Adi on the 2025 chart
- #865
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Adi went to 24 boys in 2025, but Aadi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 63, which makes it the 865th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,384 places above the chart.
- Aadi39
- Adi24
About 1 boy in 27,112 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 71,170 for Adi itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Uel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Adi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Uel climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Uel's path sketches the road Adi is walking now.
Adi 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
Adi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and two syllables — about as short as a name gets.
- Three real languages produce it, each with a good sense.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in most languages.
- It is used for both sexes in Hebrew, so forms may guess wrong.
- It reads as a shortening of Adam or Aditya to many people.
- The three possible sources mean entirely different things.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Adi
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Adi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Adi?
- Adi is one of 2 recorded spellings. Aadi is the more common one — 39 births in 2025 against 24 for Adi.
- How popular is the name Adi in 2025?
- Adi ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adi?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Adi — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adi with classmates?
- Adi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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