Adair

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Adair is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name261K records spelled Adair7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written A'Dair, Adāir

69 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Adair is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A male given name from Scottish Gaelic, of Scottish usage, equivalent to English Edgar.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Alaskan island

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, Adal<

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In Irish, A Scottish name prominent in Ulster. It is also occasionally an anglicized form of Ó Dáire, * formerly in Offaly. MIF (where Robin Adair is identified)

  as a name·The Surnames of Ireland

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 109 years between 1914–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Adair Crawfordb. 1748GBBritish chemist (1748-1795)
• Adair Roche, Baron Rocheb. 1871GBBritish judge (1871-1956)
• Adair Blainb. 1894AUAustralian politician
• Hilary Marquandb. 1901GBnot in their usual nameBritish politician (1901-1972)
• Doug Dickeyb. 1932USnot in their usual nameAmerican football player, coach, athletic director, College Football Hall of Fame member
• Robin Whiteb. 1946NZnot in their usual nameNew Zealand artist (born 1946)
• Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswellb. 1955GBBritish businessman (born 1955)
• Adair Fergusonb. 1955AUAustralian rower
• Adair Cardosob. 1993BRBrazilian singer
• Adair Tishlerb. 1996USAmerican actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 390 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Adair?

We estimate roughly 29 thousand people bear Adair (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Adair have the most bearers?

We estimate about 28 thousand people bear Adair in Brazil, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled adair.

Where is Adair most common?

Adair is densest in Brazil, where the national register counts about 1 in 7.5 thousand people carrying it.

How common is Adair compared with other names?

In Brazil, Adair is the 785th most common given name of 536,280 given names recorded there.

Is Adair a male or female name?

Adair is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Adair mean?

Recorded meaning: from the Scottish male personal name Adair, a different form of Edgar