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The first name 
Addison

Addison is a female first name. In some cases it's also given to boys.

The name Addison is very popular!

The first name Addison is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #27 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Addison, accounting for approximately 0.40 % of all newborn girls. In the entire USA, approximately 146,427 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Addison. That is 0.04 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Addison

What does the name 
Addison mean?

The first name Addison is of Old English origin and means ‘son of Adam’. Adam, in turn, means ‘man,’ more specifically, the first man.

By the way… its current popularity as a female given name is due to its phonetic similarity to Madison and Kate Walsh's role as gynecologist Dr. Addison Montgomery in Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

Addison has several famous namesakes

An influencer and musician

Addison Rae (*2000)
In 2019, Addison Rae Easterling, known as Addison Rae started uploading videos on TikTok, where she quickly gained popularity. Within months, she had millions of followers and became one of the most followed people on the platform. In addition to TikTok, Addison Rae has also found success as a singer: she released several singles, including 'Obsessed' (2021). She has also appeared in films and television series, including the Netflix film 'He's All That' (2021). She has also signed several endorsement and advertising deals and has started a charity organization.

A Grey's Antatomy figure

Dr. Addison Montgomery
Dr. Addison Montgomery is a fictional character on the television series 'Grey's Anatomy' (since 2005) and 'Private Practice' (2007 – 2013), portrayed by actress Kate Walsh. She is a former main character in 'Grey's Anatomy' and had a major role in the spin-off series 'Private Practice'. Montgomery is a successful gynaecologist and obstetrician who works at Seattle Grace Hospital and later moves to Los Angeles to work at a practice. She was married to Dr. Derek Shepherd.

A zoologist, biologist and professor

Addison Emery Verrill (1839 - 1926)
The American invertebrate zoologist, biologist, ichthyologist, museum curator and university professor Addison Emery Verrill had a very varied career. He studied under Louis Agassiz at Harvard University from 1859. He was then appointed professor of natural history and zoology at Yale University. From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of comparative anatomy and entomology at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to teaching, he was curator of the Boston Society of Natural Sciences from 1864 to 1874 and of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University from 1865 to 1910.

An architect and interior designer

Addison Mizner (1872 - 1933)
Addison Mizner was an American architect and interior designer best known for his designs of Spanish-style villas and buildings in the 1920s, particularly in Florida. He travelled extensively in Europe and developed a taste for Spanish Colonial architecture. He had a distinctive style, characterized using bold colours, exotic materials and elaborate detailing. Some of his best-known works in Florida include the Addison Mizner Hotel in Boca Raton, the El Mirasol Palace in Palm Beach and the Everglades Club Estate in Palm Beach.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Addison, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Addison? Are you also called Addison? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

The namesake...

of Addison Road, a street in London, is the essayist and statesman Joseph Addison (1672 -1719). Likewise, the nearby Addison Avenue was named after him.

A few creeks

Several rivers bear the name Addison Creek. You can find them in Alaska, Florida and Illinois.

A community

Addison, a community, is part of the Elizabethtown-Kitley township in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Addison -
in the 2000s more popular than ever before

If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few girls' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 432 girls' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Addison is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Addison has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2010, the name even made it to rank #11 of the most popular girls' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Addison was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Happy Birthday - 3,945 girls named Addison celebrate their second birthday this year

...because: In 2022, 3,945 girls were born and given the name Addison by their parents. That puts Addison at #52 on our list of most popular girls' names. It was much less popular in 1977 - only 16 parents chose this name for their newborn daughter and it ranked 3,884 on the popularity scale of all girls' names.

Addison -
very special and well known across the entire USA

Everyone knows her, everyone loves her and still she’s different from the mainstream: Addison occurs in every single state of the U.S. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Addison is definitely something very special. However, at the same time, since the name does not appear in the top 100 most common first names in any single state, Addison is not one of those names that one encounters in every neighbourhood, but stands out from the crowd, is noticeable and special without being strange or unknown. From Alaska to Florida, a total of 138,058 women and girls of all generations bear the name Addison – that is one in 1,117. However, there are considerable regional differences – the name is far more popular than average in Nevada, where one in 520 women and girls is called Addison, while it is particularly rare in New York, where you have to ask an average of 2,808 women for their name to get Addison as an answer once.

Addison has 7 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is the most popular first letter for girls’ names. 11.8% of all common girls’ names in the US start with this letter. The second most common first letter in girls' names is S.

With seven letters, the name Addison has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 11.8% of all girls' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs over three times as often as all other letters on average. And, by the way, of all the girls' names that begin with the letter A, the name Ashley is the most common.

Other names with 
A, d, d, i, s, o and n

If you take all the letters in the name Addison – A, d, d, i, s, o and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Addonis or Addsion.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Addison

If your name is Addison and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Addison

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Addison, you can simply say:

Apple

Dinosaur

Dinosaur

Igloo

Sun

Orange

Nut

This is how the name Addison is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Addison in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Addison

Addison

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Addison

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Addison is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
D
D
I
S
O
N

Have you ever waved the name Addison

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
D
D
I
S
O
N

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Addison sounds like this: