Adrian
A surname from the Latin personal name Hadrianus, ultimately linked to the city of Hadria in northern Italy.
The #6,201 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 55,993 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Adrian comes from the Latin personal name Hadrianus, meaning “from Hadria” or “of Hadria.” Hadria was an ancient city in northern Italy, and the name is also associated with the Adriatic region. In older surname scholarship, Adrian is often treated as a surname taken from a given name rather than from a place-name directly.
History
19th-century surname writers commonly explained Adrian as a surname formed from the personal name Adrian or Hadrian, with medieval forms such as Adrain also recorded. The name was used both as a surname and as a given name, helped by the fame of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and later popes named Adrian. English records show several spelling variants, including Adrain and Adrien.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The English Pope Adrian IV was born Nicholas Breakspeare, showing that Adrian was long used as a prestigious given name as well as a surname.
From the historical record
“introduction. ADRIAN. A personal name, the Lat. Hadrianus. ADRECY. See Darcy. AFFLECK. A smgular contraction of the surname Auchinleck, borne by an ancient family 'of that ilk' in Ayrshire. Sir Edmund Affleck created baronet in 1782, was sixth in descent from Sir John Auchin- leck, son of Gilbert A. of Auchinleck.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom