Skip to main content

Adela

Nearly gone in the early 2000s, it's back: more girls got it last year than in years past, a real comeback on a small base. Germanic at root, from a word for "noble", and given only to girls.

Adela Pronunciation

Adela is pronounced ah-DE-lah (/aˈdɛla/).

Alive in 2025
9,429
Newborns 2025
201
National rank
#372
Next name day
23 November
Go to page

What Adela means

Where Adela comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Adela grows from the Germanic root adal, meaning noble. The same root gives the short Polish gloss, szlachetna, and it seeded a whole family of names across medieval Europe. English keeps a cousin in the old word atheling, a prince of noble blood.

The longer forms carry that sense of rank openly. Adelajda extends the root with a second element, while the plain variant Adel leaves it exposed. From Adela the softer names break away: Adelka for a small child, Ada when even three syllables feel like too many.

History gives it real bearers. Saint Adela of Pfalzel, a Frankish abbess of the eighth century, founded a convent near Trier and appears in the records as Adela. The meaning stayed put. Whatever a girl named Adela becomes, the root still says noble.

When Adela celebrates name day

Adela appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 23 November.

Next name day
23 November
Monday in 2026
Next one in 29 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.

How many people are named Adela

1 in 2391 women in Poland is named Adela. 9,429 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #372 among female names.

People with the name Adela 2019 → 2025
9,429 −1,273 since 2019
2020 10,564 −138
2021 10,270 −294
2022 9,997 −273
2023 9,781 −216
2024 9,597 −184
2025 9,429 −168

Adela's popularity over time

201 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #182 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2005.

hover a bar to explore
201 newborns with the name Adela in 2025
national rank #182 that year

Where parents choose Adela

Adela is most popular in Podlaskie, 72% above the national average (64 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Subcarpathian (+36%) and Lower Silesian (+35%). It is least common in Opole and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 92% and 43% below average respectively.

Chosen most
  • Podlaskie
    +72%
    1 in 1,028 babies
  • Subcarpathian
    +36%
    1 in 1,296 babies
  • Lower Silesian
    +35%
    1 in 1,309 babies
Chosen least
  • Opole
    −92%
    1 in 23,048 babies
  • Kuyavian-Pomeranian
    −43%
    1 in 3,125 babies
  • Holy Cross
    −43%
    1 in 3,080 babies

Adela as a middle name

Adela is a first name for 9,429 women in Poland and a middle name for another 4,339, a 68/32 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 152nd, between Pelagia (4,392) and Konstancja (4,218).

As a first name
9,429
As a middle name
4,339
first name 68% middle name 32%
Middle-name ranking women

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Anhelina #24