The baby name Adair offers a light, lithe sound with a bright, confident appeal.
Thanks to Kristin and Leigh for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
EDGAR’S COUSIN
Way back in the tenth century, King Edgar the Peaceable ruled England.
His name comes from the Old English ead – wealth. It’s the basis of a great many Ed- names we use today: think Edwin, Edith, Edward.
Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it didn’t survive the Norman Invasion.
But Sir Walter Scott gave the name to a fictional Edgar in his 1819 novel The Bride of Lammermoor. It’s a romantic tragedy; you might also know it from the 1835 Donizetti opera, Lucia di Lammermoor.
Scott’s novel typically gets credit for a resurgence in the name’s use.
Why all this talk of Edgar? It’s almost certainly the forerunner of the baby name Adair.
Drop the ‘g’ sound and it’s not such a stretch. Apparently the spelling Eadyear may help bridge Edgar to Adair.
CAPTAIN ADAIR and OTHER NOTABLES
The surname is in use from the 1400s onward, spreading from Scotland to Ireland to elsewhere.
In the nineteenth century, Captain John Adair made a mint in the US, then returned home to Ireland intent of building a palatial country home to rival the royal estate Balmoral. Adair’s Glenveagh Castle nearly succeeded. It’s now part of Glenveagh National Park.
Other notables to wear the surname include athletes and scientists, as well as:
- Legendary vaudeville actor Jean Adair, best known as the cheerfully murderous Aunt Martha in Arsenic and Old Lace. Adair originated the role on Broadway and starred in the movie version with Cary Grant, too.
- Poet Virginia Hamilton Adair.
- Nineteenth century Cherokee Nation leader William Penn Adair had a very famous namesake – William Penn Adair Rogers, better known as cowboy comedian Will Rogers.
- For over a century, there was an Adair Baronetcy, created in 1838, and extinct as of 1988.
That’s just the tiniest sliver of a list.
DAISY ADAIR
If you recall the short-lived Showtime series Dead Like Me, you might remember Daisy Adair.
In brief: main character Georgia was an eighteen year old slacker with a dead end job. She meets a bizarre accidental death, only to find that she’s been assigned to another dead end job – literally. Georgia becomes part of the local crew of grim reapers, responsible for helping souls cross over into the afterlife. Daisy Adair is one of George’s fellow reapers, a former Hollywood starlet who claims to have died on the set of Gone With the Wind.
It’s an obscure reference, and yet, the show was something of a cult classic. It ran for two seasons, 2003 to 2004, and inspired a made-for-TV movie in 2009.
ADDIE
The biggest reason to think the baby name Adair might succeed today isn’t a fictional character or any historical figure.
It’s countless girls answering to an Addie name.
The current US Top 1000 includes Addison, Adalyn, Adeline, Adelaide, Ada, Adalynn, Adelyn, Adaline, Adelynn, Addilynn, Addilyn, Adelina, Adley, Adalee, Adele, and Addyson. That is a lot of Addie names.
This raises the possibility that Adair could offer a similar-but-slightly-different option for a daughter or a masculine form for a son. Think of Milo and Millie, Isla and Isaiah. Names don’t have to share roots to rise at the same time. Sometimes a stylish sound can be every bit as powerful.
BY THE NUMBERS
Speaking of gender, the baby name Adair is used is almost equal numbers for boys and girls alike as of 2019.
In 2019, 30 girls and 34 boys received the name.
Ten years ago, the picture looked very different: 10 girls and 93 boys were given the baby name Adair.
And in 1997? 27 girls and 15 boys.
Unlike many names, there’s no consistent trendline. The baby name Adair has shifted from more-masculine to more-feminine over the last one hundred years. But it’s always been in use, in small numbers, from the 1910s onward.
CONFIDENT and LITHE
The baby name Adair occupies that rare space. It’s truly unisex, and almost completely undiscovered.
The “dare” sound lends it plenty of adventurous spirit. But history anchors it, too.
It might be a way to honor an Edgar on your family tree. Or it might simply be a bright choice for a child, graceful and appealing, perfectly in step with current trends but still a distinctive, unexpected choice.
What do you think of the baby name Adair?
First published on June 20, 2011, this post was revised substantially and re-posted on May 6, 2021.
It also has a nature vibe to it that makes it sound fresh – the meaning is Scottish Gaelic for “oak tree ford”. I love the Edgar connection so I’d probably use it for Team Blue. Team Pink has a lot of names already 🙂
I like it, but on a boy, not a girl. I think I’d prefer it in the middle spot simply due to its “a dare” sound, but it would be a nice way to honour an Edgar.
Adair for a girl! Love it, love it, love it! If I wanted to go the unisex direction, I’d use Ellis and Adair for girls – Elle and Ada. Oh, I also like it for a boy’s middle name…
There’s a female contestant on The Glee Project right now named Ellis – I think she’s 18 or 19. But I do know a boy Ellis, too.
Someone else just told me that, Abby! I’ve been trying to push Ellis (for a girl) on NB for, like, a year, and so far I’ve only got one supporter really. Ha!
Adair makes me think of Fred Astaire, so the name feels graceful and elegant with some real panache. I also like that it’s a short name with the accent on the second syllable, so it makes a great middle name.
Ruby Adair
Frederick Adair
Jasper Adair
Growing up the only Adair’s I knew were females, so I automatically think girl though I know that it was originally and traditionally a boys name.
I really do love Adair, Adele, Ada, Adelaide…I even like Addison and Adeline/Adelyn and I’d probably like them even more if they weren’t sooo popular. Though these all pale in comparison to my new favorite: Adelais (or Adalay) which has the sophisticated sound of Adelaide without the harsh LAID sound that bugs me.
I live in Oklahoma and there’s an Adair here that’s a really small town. When I hear the name all I can think of is the weatherman talking about Adair, Oklahoma. Outside of Oklahoma though… I could see people using it for boys. It would probably sound even cooler on a girl though because it’s unexpected.
Chantilly, I was just about to mention that there’s an Adair County in Oklahoma! I bet they’re both named after William Penn Adair. I wonder if it’s too much of a stretch to use Adair as a Cherokee heritage name? I really like the sound, for either a girl or a boy.
I live in Adair County, OK! What I’m curious about is how most people pronounce it outside of OK. I lived in Tennessee briefly, and I remember a woman’s last name was Adair. However, she pronounced it uh-Dare. Here in Adair County it’s A-dare.
Definitely a-dare. Almost no difference in emphasis on the syllables for me – but then, my vowels are a little wacky thanks to my mid-Atlantic accent.
I love Adair for a girl. I think it sounds very classy and stylish. Adair and Blythe,another one of my faves, would make great sisters.
As a Yank, Adair strikes me as ALL boy. I think it’s the ‘dare’ that makes me think so.
Snazzy, simple and neat, I really like Adair, even though I, personally am more likely to use Edgar. I like Edgar WAY more!
I know an Adare in her mid-twenties. Her sister’s name is Lucinda. A very stylish pair–well, they are New Yorkers 🙂
This is one of the names I can see working well in Australia, as it has strong Irish-Scottish roots. We have had our own distinguished Adair, Adair “Chil” Blain, who was an surveyor and MP, served in two World Wars and was also a POW.
It’s also an aristocratic surname – the Adair Baronets were created in the 18th century for Robert Shafto Adair, whom the song “Bonny Bobby Shafto” was written about.
I went to school with a girl called Adair, but have seen both male and female Adairs. The trouble is, they all seem to be in the 30-40 age range – is this too “mum and dad” age for children?
There’s also a store that sells linen called Adairs, not sure whether that would people off or not.