Adel
A rare name most Poles have never met, though that's changing fast: more girls were given it last year than in any year before. Germanic at root, Adel carries the old sense of "noble".
Adel Pronunciation
Adel is pronounced AH-del (/ˈadɛl/).
What Adel means
Where Adel comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Adel traces back to the Germanic word adal, meaning noble, the same root behind Adela and the longer Adelajda. In Polish records it usually appears as a short feminine form, softening to Adelka at home or shrinking to Ada.
That noble once meant something narrow. It marked people born into a ruling family, close to land and title, before the word came to describe fine character instead.
The spelling travels. In Arabic, Adel (عادل) is a man's name meaning just or fair, borne by rulers and film stars, and it meets the Germanic Adel only where the letters happen to line up.
On a class register a teacher reads out Adel, and the child answers to a word that once meant noble.
How many people are named Adel
1 in 84434 women in Poland is named Adel. 457 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1383 among female names.
Adel's popularity over time
40 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #387 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2019.
Where Adel is most popular
Adel is most popular in Lower Silesian, 123% above the national average (13 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+118%) and Łódź (+71%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Greater Poland, 52% and 37% below average respectively.
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Lower Silesian13 girls born+123%
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Lubusz4 girls born+118%
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Łódź8 girls born+71%
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Masovian22 girls born+68%
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West Pomeranian5 girls born+60%
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Pomeranian7 girls born+28%
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Silesian9 girls born+7%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian3 girls born−26%
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Greater Poland5 girls born−37%
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Lesser Poland4 girls born−52%
Adel as a middle name
Adel is a first name for 457 women in Poland and a middle name for another 108, an 81/19 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 678th, between Yves (109) and Juhani (108).
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#676 Kaspian109
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#677 Yves109
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#678 Adel108
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#679 Juhani108
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#680 Lars108