boy's name
Adonis
uh-DON-iss
- Origin Greek
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 3
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 25,271
the United States
#241
2025 births
Adonis is a boy's name of Greek origin borrowed from a Semitic word for lord. In Greek myth Adonis was a mortal of extraordinary beauty loved by Aphrodite and killed by a boar, and his name has been a byword for male good looks ever since.
- Adonis is a name of Greek origin.
- Peaked in 2023, when 2,108 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 2,268 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1918.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Adonis over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 5 |
| 1920s | 13 |
| 1930s | 15 |
| 1940s | 5 |
| 1950s | 106 |
| 1960s | 126 |
| 1970s | 408 |
| 1980s | 532 |
| 1990s | 1,718 |
| 2000s | 2,354 |
| 2010s | 6,098 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 10,314 |
What Adonis means
Adonis means lord, from a Semitic root that Greek took in wholesale. The mythological figure gave the word its second life: to call someone an Adonis is to call them strikingly handsome, a usage recorded in English for centuries.
Where Adonis comes from
Adonis comes into Greek from the Phoenician or wider Northwest Semitic adon, lord — the same element in the Hebrew Adonai. The Greeks took both the word and the figure: Adonis is a dying-and-returning god of Levantine origin whose cult reached Greece by the seventh century BC, mourned annually by women in the Adonia festival. The myth of his death by a boar and Aphrodite's grief was retold by Ovid and then by Shakespeare in Venus and Adonis, which fixed the name in English as a synonym for male beauty. Its use as a given name is modern and mostly American.
Adonis in use
Adonis reached its highest recorded use in 2023 and charts in six of the seven countries we track.
How popular is Adonis?
In 2025, Adonis was given to 1,462 babies in the United States, ranking #241 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Adonis is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Adonis
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Adonis also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Adonis over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Adonis
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Adonis in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Adonis
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Adonis — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Adonis
What does the name Adonis mean?
Adonis means lord, from a Semitic root that Greek borrowed. The same element appears in the Hebrew Adonai.
Who was Adonis in Greek mythology?
A mortal of exceptional beauty loved by Aphrodite and killed by a wild boar. He was mourned each year in the festival of the Adonia.
How do you pronounce Adonis?
uh-DON-iss, with the stress on the middle syllable.
How popular is the name Adonis?
In 2025, Adonis was given to 1,462 babies in the United States, ranking #241 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Is Adonis a girl's or a boy's name?
Adonis is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Adonis?
Adonis has 3 syllables.
When was Adonis most popular?
Adonis peaked in 2023, when 2,108 babies were given the name. It has been rising over the past decade.
What are the nicknames for Adonis?
Adonis is usually shortened to Don and Ado.
Is Adonis a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Adonis currently ranks #241 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.