Adna
Feminine · “Hebrew Adna”
Adna is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 585 girls against 12 boys since 1880.
Adna appears in a list of men who sent their foreign wives away. Ezra 10 records the names of those who agreed to dismiss their wives and children after the return from exile, and the book of Ruth, about a Moabite woman who becomes David's great-grandmother, reads like an answer to exactly that policy.
How old is the name Adna?
Adna first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Adna alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 500 people named Adna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adna most popular?
Adna peaked in 1895, reaching #1592 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,268 places below that high. See the whole 1895 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Adna
Ezra and Nehemiah describe a community rebuilding itself after exile and deciding who belongs. The measure taken in Ezra 9 and 10 is severe: men who had married women from the surrounding peoples were required to send them away with their children, and the book lists by name those who complied. Whether this actually happened at the scale described is debated; what is clear is that the text presents it approvingly. The book of Ruth presents the opposite case, and many scholars read it as a deliberate response, though its date is disputed. Either way the two sit in the same canon making incompatible arguments about the same question, which is one of the more interesting things about the Hebrew Bible: it preserves the disagreement rather than resolving it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Adna, pleasure or delight
From a Hebrew root associated with pleasure or delight, the same root behind Eden. Adna appears in Ezra 10:30 among the men of Israel who had married foreign women, and again in Nehemiah 12:15 as a priest. The name is male in both places. Its use as an American girl's name in the nineteenth century follows the Puritan practice of taking names from genealogies. It peaks in 1895.
Pronouncing Adna
AD-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, short a. The Hebrew is ahd-NAH with the stress at the end. The consonant cluster dn is unusual at the start of an English syllable and speakers separate it.
Nicknames for Adna
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
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 201936 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1592reached in 1895
- Change vs 2024
- −26.7%11 in 2025, from 15
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.
Adna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adna in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Adnas among us
people named Adna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Adna
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
Adna 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
Adna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew root meaning is settled and positive.
- It is short and easy to spell.
- It fits the revival of nineteenth-century biblical names.
- The biblical bearers are male.
- Adna, Adena and Edna are easily confused.
- The passage it appears in is a difficult one.
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Adna
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Adna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Adna in 2025?
- Adna ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adna?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Adna — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adna with classmates?
- Adna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Velia#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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