Adele
- Pronunciation
- [A-dele]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Good Humor: Of The Nobility. Noble.
- Origin
- French
About the Name Adele
Adele is the French and German short form of names built on the ancient Germanic element adal, meaning "noble" — the same root behind Adela, Adelaide, Adeline, and Adelina. It passed into French as Adèle and into wide European use, and its meaning has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, resting simply on the idea of nobility. The recorded variants Adel, Adela, Adelia, Adella, and Adelle all descend from this same noble root, as do the fuller and currently more popular Adelaide and Adeline.
As an American baby name, Adele tells a quiet but distinct story. It first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2010, reached its modern peak in 2012 at rank #536, and has held steadily in the lower half of the top-1000 every year since — sitting at #798 in 2024, with roughly 5,700 American girls named Adele across its charted years. Its arrival in the rankings is recent enough that the name reads as vintage-French and freshly contemporary at once: an old aristocratic name that re-entered American awareness in the 2010s.
The name's appeal is its compact two-syllable elegance and its unambiguous "noble" meaning. It pairs an old-world French accent (the spelling Adèle) with a clean, modern sound that fits comfortably alongside today's popular Ad- names like Adeline and Adelaide. As a short, soft, and easily spelled choice with a clear meaning and a touch of European polish, Adele appeals to parents who want something familiar in sound but uncommon on the playground.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Adele
US Popularity History (2010–2025)
Annual US births named Adele by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2012 with 564 girls named Adele (girl rank #536 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #751 for girls (362 US births). That's 215 places below its 2012 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Adele Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Adele the strongest states are New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #334 | 485 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #502 | 150 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #544 | 75 |
| 4 | Utah | #582 | 26 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #594 | 78 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | #599 | 41 |
| 7 | Florida | #624 | 251 |
| 8 | Washington | #627 | 101 |
| 9 | Illinois | #645 | 152 |
| 10 | California | #695 | 441 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina | #1,012 | 33 |
| 2 | Georgia | #947 | 48 |
| 3 | Indiana | #895 | 26 |
| 4 | Ohio | #885 | 60 |
| 5 | Virginia | #824 | 43 |
| 6 | Missouri | #809 | 38 |
| 7 | Michigan | #797 | 47 |
| 8 | Minnesota | #769 | 43 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #724 | 80 |
| 10 | Maryland | #699 | 36 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Adele in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Adele?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Adele to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Adele against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
Adele Baby Name Ideas
- Baby Names for Last Names Starting With L: Keep the Repeated L Clear Without Losing Flow
- The Best Middle Names for Scarlett: Pairings That Balance a Crisp Final T
- The Best Middle Names for Gianna: Pairings That Keep a Three-Syllable Name Light
- When Both Parents Have Frequently Misspelled Names: How Simple Should the Baby’s Name Be?
- Art Nouveau Baby Names: Botanical Lines, Studio Craft, and Names With Turn-of-the-Century Character
- The Best Middle Names for Rebecca: Pairings That Give a Three-Syllable Classic a Clean Landing
- Should You Use a Baby Name With One Dominant Celebrity or Character Association? Testing Whether It Can Stand Alone
- The Best Middle Names for Lily: Pairings That Ground a Short Floral Name Without an -ee Echo
- Names That Sound Expensive: The Sound Science Behind a Refined Name
- Golf-Inspired Baby Names: For the Little Tee Time Champion
- The Baby Name Laura: Meaning, Origin, Popularity, and Variations
- 200 Ethiopian Amharic Boy Names With Great Meanings
- 200 Cute Girl Names For Your Sweet Babies
- 30 Unique French Boy Names And Girl Names With Meanings
- 500 Sporty Girl Names Inspired By Women Soccer Players
- 200 Unique Pretty Girl Names For Your Beautiful Babies
- 100 Unique And Exotic Girl Names For Your Pretty Daughters
- Top 1000 Most Popular Girl Names In U.S. Of 2015
- Long And Elegant Girl Names With Nine-Letter
- 70 Ethiopian Girl Names With Great Meanings