Adonai
Masculine · “my Lord”
Adonai is given to both — 1,223 boys and 243 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Adonai is the word Jewish readers say aloud where the text has the divine name — my Lord, a substitution that has held for two and a half thousand years.
How old is the name Adonai?
Adonai first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Adonai is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Adonai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adonai most popular?
Adonai peaked in 2024, reaching #1685 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, 257 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From adon to Adonai
The story of Adonai
The four-letter divine name is not pronounced in Jewish practice, and Adonai is said instead; the Septuagint rendered it kyrios and English Bibles as LORD in capitals. The Latin transcription of the consonants with Adonai's vowels produced Jehovah, which is a scribal artifact. The name appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
my Lord
From the Hebrew adon, 'lord' or 'master', with a first-person possessive ending — 'my Lord'. It is the word read aloud in place of the Tetragrammaton, which is not pronounced. The vowels of Adonai written under those consonants produced the hybrid 'Jehovah'. The reading is undisputed.
How the name formed
- adon
- Adonai
Related forms: אֲדֹנָי · Adonai · Kyrios
Pronouncing Adonai
ah-doh-NY
Three syllables, stress on the third. Spanish speakers often say ah-doh-NAH-ee with four.
Nicknames for Adonai
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
- 1990
- Most boys named
- 202499 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1685reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −20.2%79 in 2025, from 99
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.
Adonai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אֲדֹנָי in Hebrew — transliteration
- Adonai in Spanish — same name
- Kyrios in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Adonais among us
people named Adonai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 21,621 born in 2025 was named Adonai
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Adonai
- #1942
- Adonai on the 2025 chart
- #829
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Adonai went to 79 boys in 2025, but Adonay is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 99, which makes it the 829th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,113 places above the chart.
- Adonai79
- Adonay20
About 1 boy in 17,253 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 21,621 for Adonai 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 Johannes test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Adonai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johannes climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johannes's path sketches the road Adonai is walking now.
Adonai 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 Adonai is headed
Adonai looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 20% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Adonai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adonai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The substitution practice behind it is a genuinely remarkable piece of religious history.
- That 'Jehovah' is a scribal artifact of this word is a first-rate fact.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- It is a name of God and carries a very large claim.
- Observant Jewish readers reserve it for prayer.
- The syllable count differs between Hebrew and Spanish readings.
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Adonai
Masculine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adonais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Adonai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Adonai?
- Adonai is the most-used spelling in US records — 79 of the 99 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Adonay.
- How popular is the name Adonai in 2025?
- Adonai ranks #1942 among US boy names in 2025, with 79 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adonai?
- About 1 in every 21,621 US boys born in 2025 was named Adonai — 79 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adonai with classmates?
- Adonai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adonai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Justus#1942 · Whit#1942 · Jasir#1942 · Journey#1942 · Maverik#1942 · Shaun#1942 · Shulem#1942 · Bowden#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adonai? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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