Hadi
Masculine · “guide”
Hadi is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,535 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Hadi is the Arabic word for one who guides, and it has been spoken in that sense for well over a thousand years — as a title, as a name, and as part of the phrase al-Hadi, The Guide, among the divine names in Islam. Two open syllables, four letters, nothing silent: it says itself. It travels easily from Arabic into Persian, Turkish, Urdu and Malay without changing shape.
How old is the name Hadi?
Hadi first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Hadi alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 2,500 people named Hadi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hadi most popular?
Hadi peaked in 2025, reaching #1341 nationally. Today it ranks #1341, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hudā (Arabic: guidance) to Hadi
The story of Hadi
The name comes from classical Arabic, where hādī is simply the active participle of the verb to guide. Al-Hadi, The Guide, stands among the ninety-nine names of God in Islamic tradition, which is why the compound Abd al-Hadi — servant of the Guide — has long been common alongside the plain form. Ali al-Hadi, the ninth-century imam revered in Shia Islam, carried it as his epithet, and the name spread with Arabic itself across Persia, Anatolia, South Asia and the Malay world. In the United States it arrived with Arabic-speaking families and has been climbing steadily ever since, with its strongest presence in Michigan.
Meaning
guide, one who guides
From the Arabic root h-d-y, which gives hudā, 'guidance'. The same root produces Mahdi, 'the guided one'.
How the name formed
- hudāArabic: guidance
- hādīArabic: one who guides
- al-Hadi
- Hadi
Related forms: هادي · هادی (Hadi) · Hadi · ہادی (Haadi) · Hadi · Mahdi
Pronouncing Hadi
HAH-dee
In Arabic the first vowel is long — HAA-dee — with the stress on it. English speakers sometimes reach for HAY-dee on first sight, but one correction usually settles it.
Nicknames for Hadi
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
- 1980
- Most boys named
- 2025142 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1341reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +34.0%142 in 2025, from 106
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.
Hadi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- هادي in Arabic — transliteration
- هادی (Hadi) in Persian — same name
- Hadi in Turkish — same name
- ہادی (Haadi) in Urdu — spelling variant
- Hadi in Indonesian / Malay — same name
- Mahdi in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan, California, Texas.
Hadis among us
people named Hadi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,029 born in 2025 was named Hadi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ajani test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hadi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ajani climbed just as high around 2003, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ajani's path sketches the road Hadi is walking now.
Hadi is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hadi is headed
Hadi 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.
Hadi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hadi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, spelled exactly as it sounds, with no silent letters or double consonants to explain over the phone.
- Works unchanged in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and Malay, so it stays itself across a wide stretch of the world.
- Short enough that it needs no nickname, while still leaving Adi available inside the family.
- A documented meaning with no ambiguity — parents can answer the question about it in three words.
- English speakers who read it before hearing it often try HAY-dee, pulling it toward Heidi. It is a one-time correction rather than a lifelong one, but expect it at every new school and doctor's office.
- In Turkish, 'hadi' is an everyday interjection meaning 'come on' or 'let's go'. Worth knowing if Turkish is spoken in the family or the neighborhood.
- Al-Hadi is one of the names of God in Islamic tradition, which gives the name real religious weight for many families and is a point to raise with relatives if that context matters to them.
- A child with this name will very likely be the only one in the class — good for standing out, less good if he would rather not explain it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Hadi
Masculine · #1341 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hadis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Hadi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hadi in 2025?
- Hadi ranks #1341 among US boy names in 2025, with 142 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hadi?
- About 1 in every 12,029 US boys born in 2025 was named Hadi — 142 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hadi with classmates?
- Hadi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hadi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shilo#1341 · Benji#1341 · Trent#1341 · Caysen#1339 · Endrick#1339 · Zaiel#1345 · Santiel#1345 · Torin#1347
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hadi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hadi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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