Latin Hadrianus, from the town of Hadria in northern Italy — from hadria. The Adriatic Sea and the emperor Hadrian take their names from the same town.
Adrian ranks 74th among American boys in 2025, with 4,505 born that year. Its best year was 2008, when 8,100 babies were given the name, ranking 56th. The typical living American called Adrian is about 21 years old today. It is relatively most common in Nevada, where it accounts for 0.34% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.