Adelaide
The story
Adelaide is the queen of its family: the full ceremonial form, the old Germanic Adalheidis, noble kind, and the same root adal runs through Ada, Adalyn, Adalynn and Adaline. A real queen carried it too, and an Australian city has answered to her since 1836. The American record is a classic resurrection: about 3,900 in the 1910s, a fade to 170 in the 1970s, then the return, 2,900 in the 2000s, 10,200 in the 2010s, and 6,800 so far this decade. One figure is absolute: across the whole record, not one boy, 34,100 girls to zero. Addie and Ada do the everyday work, and Heidi waits inside via the German Adelheid, as our nickname records note, a hidden passage between two names most families never suspect are one.
Adelaide around the world
One shared root links 21 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: a Germanic family built on adal "noble": Adalheidis "of noble kind" wore down through Old French Aalis into Alice and a crowd of descendants
The constellation
15 more branches of this family
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Adelaide peaked in the 2020s.
Popularity in Brazil
22,795 people · the #981 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 8,929 · median age 63
Among people named Adelaide living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1950s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 49 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Adelaide
Most people given the name Adelaide in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Adelaide deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Adelaide truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Adelaide fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Adelaide · Nicknames for Adelaide · Names of real princesses
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