MEANING & HISTORY
What does Adam mean?
Adam is the Hebrew word for man or human being used as a personal name. Genesis connects it by wordplay with adamah, ground or earth, in the creation account.
That biblical association is clear, while proposed deeper links with redness or an Akkadian verb belong to a separate etymological discussion. The immediate Hebrew meaning should therefore be distinguished from later poetic phrases such as made of red earth.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
English
- /ˈædəm/Received-Pronunciation
- /ˈadəm/British · Northern-England · Scotland · Southern · Standard · Wales
- /ˈædəm/Australia · Canada · General-American
- [ˈæɾm̩]Australia · Canada · General-American
- [ˈæɾəm]Australia · Canada · General-American
- /ˈɛdəm/New-Zealand
A · dam2 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Middle English Adam, from Old English Adam, from Latin Adam, Adamus, from Ancient Greek Ἀδάμ (Adám), Ἄδαμος (Ádamos), from Biblical Hebrew אָדָם (adam, “earth, man, soil, light brown”), from אדמה (adamah, “red earth, ground”).
A male given name from Hebrew.
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Adam
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Adam Jala
Filipino politician
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Baby Dalupan
Filipino basketball player and coach
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
2
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
2
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Adam Jala, Baby Dalupan
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Adam in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Adam
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Ada♀Germanic noble-name short form; also Hebrew Adah
- Adan♂Unaccented form of Adán or Adam; man
- Adán♂Man or humankind, linked with earth in Genesis
- Adel♂Germanic noble-name form; also Arabic just
- Adlai·Biblical Hebrew name, compared with Adalia
- Adlaw·Sun; day
- Adnan·Settler or one who remains
- Ador♂Short form of Dominador or Salvador
What rhymes with Adam?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Names with a similar written ending
Spelling suggestions; these are not verified phonetic rhymes.
Recorded combinations with Adam
1 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore Adam further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q347181 — Adam (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Adam Jala (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q347181 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Baby Dalupan (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q347181 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Adam (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — Adam (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.