Adam
A biblical personal-name surname meaning “son of Adam,” ultimately from the Hebrew word for “man” or “human.”
The #2,654 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,745 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Adam began as a medieval surname taken from the very common given name Adam. The personal name comes from Hebrew ’adam, meaning “man,” “human,” or, in a broad biblical sense, the first man. In surname use, it often identified someone as the son or descendant of a man named Adam, and older records also show forms such as Adams and Adamson.
History
The name was especially common in the Middle Ages, when Adam was a frequent baptismal name in England and Scotland. As hereditary surnames developed, the personal name was passed on in shortened or patronymic forms, producing Adam, Adams, Adamson, and related variants. The name remains widespread in Britain and across English-speaking countries, though the spelling Adam is also used independently as a given name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower notes that medieval records show several written forms of the name, including Adam, Adams, fir Ad, and ab Adam.
From the historical record
“Inf. Rev. Wm. Reeves. ADAM. ADAMS. ADAMSOX. The personal name, much more used as a bap- tismal appellation in the middle ages than at present. In the H.R. it is written, Adam, Adams, fir Ad, and ab Adam. There are various modifications of this name which have also become surnames. See Eng. Surn. ii., 166, and…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom