Adele
Meaning of Adele
Adele is an Old Germanic given name that emerged from the element adal, meaning “noble,” and journeyed into modern usage through its refined French form Adèle before being absorbed into English. Historically borne by early medieval saints and Carolingian princesses, and later by the twelfth-century Queen Consort Adele of Champagne, the name has long signaled aristocratic grace; yet it slipped quietly into broader Anglo-American circulation during the Victorian revival of continental appellations, where its crisp two-syllable cadence found favor in literature and song. In contemporary English it is pronounced uh-DEL (/əˈdɛl/), while the French retains the softer ah-DEL (/a.dɛl/); this bilingual resonance underscores its cross-Channel pedigree. Cultural consciousness today often links Adele to the award-winning British singer-songwriter whose global prominence after 2008 briefly elevated the name’s statistical profile in the United States, though the federal records reveal that, despite periodic upticks, it has remained a distinctive rather than ubiquitous choice, comfortably situated outside the top 400 births since the mid-twentieth century. Thus, Adele offers parents a name that combines etymological weight, historical depth, and a contemporary artistic association, all without surrendering the rarity that preserves its quietly aristocratic aura.
Pronunciation
French
- Pronunced as ah-DEL (/a.dɛl/)
English
- Pronunced as uh-DEL (/əˈdɛl/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Adele
| German actress Adele Spitzeder became Bavaria's wealthiest woman by orchestrating one of the first recorded Ponzi schemes in the 19th century. |
| German author Adele Schopenhauer, sister of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and daughter of author Johanna Schopenhauer, wrote under the pseudonyms Henriette Sommer and Adrian van der Venne. |
| Adele Goldberg - Adele J. Goldberg co-developed Smalltalk-80, pioneering object-oriented programming concepts that influenced languages like Python and Java. |
| Adele Bloch-Bauer was a Jewish Austrian socialite immortalized as the subject of Gustav Klimt's renowned portraits, famously dubbed the Austrian Mona Lisa. |
| Adele Raemer is an American–Israeli blogger and educator residing in Nirim, a kibbutz near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. |
| Adele Eva Goldberg is an American linguist renowned for developing construction grammar and the constructionist approach in cognitive linguistics. |
| Adele Goldstine was an American mathematician and computer programmer who wrote the ENIAC manual and helped enable it to perform stored instructions. |
| Adele Broadbent is a children's author from New Zealand. |
| Adele Parks is an English women's fiction author who has written 24 novels in 24 years and is one of the UK's bestselling authors. |
| Adele Wiseman is a celebrated Canadian author. |
| Adele Leigh was an English operatic soprano who later married the Austrian ambassador in London. |
| Adele Faber was an American author and expert on parent-child communication. |
| Adèle Haenel is a French actress and political activist who has won two César Awards and one Lumière Award. |
| Adèle d'Affry - Under the pseudonym Marcello, Adelaide d'Affry, Duchess of Castiglione Colonna, was a painter and sculptor renowned for her busts exhibited at the Paris Salon. |
| Adèle d'Osmond, Comtesse de Boigne, a French aristocrat and writer, endured exile during the Revolution, returned to Paris under Napoleon, and later hosted a famed salon while documenting 19th-century society in her memoirs. |
