Humanverse

Adaiah vs Adam

American parents have registered 582,453 Adams since 1880, against 580 Adaiahs. Adam is still ahead, with 3,511 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Adaiah against Adam, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Adaiah Adam

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Adam has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2024, when Adaiah had 41 and Adam had 3,515.

Side by side

  Adaiah Adam
Total US births 580582,453
Most in one year 4324,081
Babies in 2025 353,511
Estimated living today 580537,000
Median age today 837
Peak year 20241984
Best rank 3,695th girls18th boys
Rank in 2025 4,067th101st
First recorded 19961880
Girls / boys 486 / 942,075 / 580,378

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Adams alive today are over 37; half the Adaiahs are over 8. That is 29 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Adaiah and Adam.