The ADAIR surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	17,969	1834	0.007	67
United States (1880 census)	4,073	1513	0.008	81
Change since 1880	+13896	-321	-0.001	-14
Other Countries
Australia	472	3386	0.003	29
United Kingdom	2,949	2097	0.006	64

Top States for ADAIR by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	2,179	1188	0.010	104
California	1,436	2247	0.004	42
Florida	924	2249	0.006	58
Alabama	847	913	0.019	190
Oklahoma	775	602	0.022	225
Top States for ADAIR by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Oklahoma	775	602	0.022	225
Alabama	847	913	0.019	190
Arkansas	487	730	0.018	182
Mississippi	411	1098	0.014	144
Utah	314	973	0.014	141

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called ADAIR live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called ADAIR represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called ADAIR in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a ADAIR by picking someone at random in Oklahoma than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of ADAIR

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the ADAIR surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the ADAIR surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of ADAIR in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Native American/Alaskan	352	1.96
Mixed Race	320	1.78
White (Hispanic)	304	1.69
Asian/Pacific	90	0.5
White (Caucasian)	15,363	85.5
Black/African American	1,542	8.58

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the ADAIR surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of ADAIR in historical publications

(origin: Celtic and Gaelic. Local) From Ath, a ford, and dare, from darach, the place of oaks, "The ford of the oaks." There is the following tradition of the origin of this surname: "Thomas, the sixth Earl of Desmond, while on a hunting excursion was benighted, and lost his way, between Tralee and Newcastle, in the county of Limerick, where he was received and hospitably entertained by one William McCormic, whose daughter he subsequently married. At this alliance, the family and clan took umbrage. Resigning his title and estate to his youngest brother, he fled to France in 1418, and died of grief at Rouen, two years afterward. The King of England attended his funeral. He had issue, Maurice and John; Robert, the son of Maurice, returning to Ireland, with the hope of regaining the estates and title of Thomas, his ancestor, slew Gerald, the White Knight, in single combat at Athdare, the ford of the oaks, whence he received the name of Adaire. He embarked for Scotland, where he married Arabella, daughter of John Campbell, Lord of Argyle."

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

ADAIR. A branch of the great AngloHibernian family of Fitz-Gerald settled at Adare, a village in co. Limerick, aud thus acquired the local surname. In the XV.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to ADAIR

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as ADAIR.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.