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The first name 
Adrian

Adrian is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.

The name Adrian is very popular!

The first name Adrian is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #58 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Adrian, accounting for approximately 0.40 % of all newborn boys. In the entire USA, approximately 264,328 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Adrian. That is 0.08 % of all living Americans.

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

What does the name 
Adrian mean?

The name Adrian is of Latin origin, and it means ‘from Hadria’. Hadria was an ancient city in northern Italy that was believed to have been founded by the Roman emperor Hadrian. The name Adrian is also a variant of the name Adrianus, which is the Latin form of the name Hadrian.

Did you know… that Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138 AD. He is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, a fortified line of defense marking the northern border of the Roman province of Britannia.

Adrian shares his name with several famous people

An actor and musician

Adrian Grenier (*1976)
Adrian Grenier is an American actor, director, producer, and musician. He began his acting career in the early 2000s and has since appeared in several films and television series. Grenier is best known for his role as Vincent Chase on the HBO television series 'Entourage', which aired from 2004 to 2011. He has had other roles, such as in 'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006) and the Netflix miniseries 'Clickbait' (2021). In addition to his acting career, Grenier is also a director, producer and musician. He has produced and directed several documentaries and had a band called

Director and screenwriter

Adrian Lyne (*1941)
He is an English film director, writer and producer. Having begun his career directing 1970s television commercials, he started making feature length films in 1980. Lyne is best known for directing Flashdance (1983) and Fatal Attraction (1987).

An influential costume and fashion designer

Gilbert Adrian (1903 - 1959)
Gilbert Adrian, real name Adrian Adolph Greenberg, was one of the most famous and influential costume and fashion designers in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. His breakthrough came when he designed Mae Murray's costumes for 'The Merry Widow' (1925) at MGM. He also worked with many other famous actresses, including Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. For example, he designed the red shoes worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film 'The Wizard of Oz'. Adrian was known for his elegant designs and had a great influence on the fashion of the time.

Football player

Adrian Peterson (*1985)
Adrian Peterson is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs of all time and has set many records during his career.

A fictional character

Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television series 'Monk', which aired on the USA Network from 2002 to 2009. The character was portrayed by actor Tony Shalhoub. Monk is a former San Francisco police officer who suffers from an extreme form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He is afraid of germs and dirt, cannot drive, and has difficulty dressing and brushing his teeth. The series follows Monk's attempts to overcome his phobias and continue his work as a private investigator while trying to solve his wife's murder.

American cartoonist

Adrian Tomine (*1974)
The American cartoonist is best known for his ongoing comic book series Optic Nerve. Originally self-published by Tomine in 1991, the series has been produced by Drawn & Quarterly since 1995. Tomine has done several magazine covers for The New Yorker.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

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

Several cities in the US...

are named Adrian. They are located in Michigan, Georgia, Texas and Oregon, among others.

Adrians Place...

in Santa Monica, California, offers social and academic programs for teens and young adults with special needs.

The Adrian Building...

is named in honor of Edgar Adrian (1889 - 1977), a pioneering physiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932. The Building is part of the University of Leicester.

In September 1941...

construction of a dam began that enabled the creation of Lake Adrian. It is one of the first artificial lakes in Michigan.

Adrian -
someone you can count on

Adrian is the epitome of persistance. Every single year since first names have been registered in the United States, parents have come up with the idea of naming their son Adrian. This means that several boys and men named Adrian have witnessed major events such as the first Nobel Prize ceremony, the moon landing, the release of the first cell phone, or the turn of the millennium. The first name Adrian has reached its best rank of 53 several times, most recently in 2011. Moreover, the name has been in the top 100 numerous times. This makes Adrian one of the most popular names of all time.

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

Adrian in 2022 - still quite popular

Adrian will be Adrian. Like every other year, there were newborns named Adrian in 2022 – in fact 5,080 to be precise, confirming Adrian is still a very popular first name. In this most recent year for which US-wide statistics are available, the name ranked #64 among all boys‘ names. Incidentally, the least popular year for Adrian was 1884, when only 9 baby boys were named Adrian.

Adrian -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in Nevada

There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Adrian is one of them. However, Adrian is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 2,661 men called Adrian who live here are 0,470% of all male residents and push their name up to #46 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Nevada. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 264,328 people with the name Adrian. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Adrian on position 136 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Adrian has 6 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 a very popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 9.0% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter J is more common for boys' names.

With six letters, the name Adrian is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven 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 9.0% of all boys' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the boys' names that start with an A, Anthony is the most common.

Other names with 
A, d, r, i, a and n

If you take all the letters in the name Adrian – A, d, r, i, a and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Adrain or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Adrian

If your name is Adrian 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 Adrian

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

Apple

Dinosaur

Rocket

Igloo

Apple

Nut

This is how the name Adrian 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 Adrian in Braille?

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

Adrian

Adrian

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

Just use American Sign Language!

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

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

A
D
R
I
A
N

Have you ever waved the name Adrian

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
R
I
A
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. Adrian sounds like this: