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Adolphus

Boys' name

Noble + wolf, through Adolph

Adolphus has been given to 4,109 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1922, with 85 recorded.

Babies named Adolphus, 2022

1 in 677,000

Adolphus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Adolphus: meaning, origin, and history

Noble + wolf, through Adolph

Germanic languages

What Adolphus means

Adolphus belongs to the name family reached through Adolphus → Adolph → Adolf. Its meaning is “noble + wolf”.

Origin, language, and formation

Adolphus is used in English and Latin. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Adolphus comes through Latin Adolphus.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Adolph and Adolf.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Latin, Adolphus is pronounced [aˈdɔɫ.pʰʊs].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,109 boys were recorded with the name Adolphus between 1880 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 85 in 1922; its best national rank was #330 in 1893.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Adolphus?

Adolphus had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 677,000
5 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only
1 in 349,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Adolphus sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Adolphus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Adolphuss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Adolphus was born before 1936 — so the typical Adolphus is around 89 today.

Median birth year
1936
About 89 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
15.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,420
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 15.6% of all recorded uses (643).

Is Adolphus rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1922 (85)
Years since peak
103
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#330
1893

Spellings of Adolphus

Adolphus is not the most common spelling — Adolph is, with 77.8% against Adolphus's 17.1%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Adolphus is used

Across 1910–2025, Adolphus was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 14,286 boys, against 1 in 59,392 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

07 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 14,286
  2. 2Alabama1 in 20,000
  3. 3North Carolina1 in 33,333
  4. 4Texas1 in 33,333
  5. 5Virginia1 in 33,333
  6. 6South Carolina1 in 50,000
  7. 7Arkansas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Florida1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Adolphus has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Adolphus around the world

Where Adolphus ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1944–1944
    #239
    in 1944

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Adolphus

People whose public names include Adolphus, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Adolphus in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Adolphus. Linked forms have their own page here.

AdolfAdolfoAdolphAdolpheAdolphoIldelfonso

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Adolphus by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#330
1893
Peak year
1922
85 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
4,109
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Adolphus

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AdonijahAdonnisAdonaiAdolfoAdonisCleophusAdoniasAdonayJosephusPinchusAdoniramAdonysAdolphDolphusAdonAdolfAdolpheAdolphoAdorianCephusKashusAdoniCashusAdonus

Names with a curve like Adolphus

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Adolphus, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LonzoRollieObieWebsterGarnettHowellDorseyRowlandLlewellynCleveAlfordIvy

Sibling names for Adolphus

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Adolphus

Top names of 1922, Adolphus's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1893Boys' names starting with A