Where does the surname Adair come from?

Adair is Scottish Gaelic in origin.

How common is the surname Adair?

18,708 people in the United States had the surname Adair in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,503 Americans. It ranked 1,927th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Adair?

John Adair, American politician (1757–1840), followed by Jean Adair.

Where is the surname Adair most common?

Wikidata records people named Adair in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Is the surname Adair getting more or less common?

More common. 17,969 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,708 in 2010, up 4.1%.

Is Adair also a first name?

Yes. Adair is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Adair

A Scottish Gaelic surname, carried by 18,708 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex A360 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Adair is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

Scottish Gaelic origin

A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic.

One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 18,708 people named Adair in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 16,503 Americans. That is up 4.1% since 2000, when the Census counted 17,969.

#1,927

rank among US surnames

18,708

people in 2010

6.3

per 100,000 Americans

+4.1%

change since 2000 (was #1,834)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,918	Hedrick	18,804	16,419
#1,919	Toney	18,787	16,434
#1,920	Cheung	18,765	16,453
#1,921	Darby	18,757	16,460
#1,922	Thorne	18,738	16,477
#1,923	Mansfield	18,725	16,488
#1,924	Kyle	18,721	16,492

Who is named Adair

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

83% of people named Adair identified as white (not Hispanic), 9.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.8% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 83%
Black (not Hispanic) 9.3%
Two or more races 2.8%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 2.1%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Adairs

6 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

John Adair
American politician (1757–1840)
Jean Adair
Actress (1873-1953)
Tom Adair
American lyricist, composer, and screenwriter (1913-1988)
Belle Adair
American actress and singer, 1889–1971
Sandra Adair
American film editor, born 1952
John Adair
Author, military historian and leadership theorist, 1934–2025

Notable Adairs come mostly from the United States (4), Canada (1) and the United Kingdom (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Adair

Ader

Adair has the Soundex code A360, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code A360.

Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Adair come from?: Adair is Scottish Gaelic in origin.
How common is the surname Adair?: 18,708 people in the United States had the surname Adair in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,503 Americans. It ranked 1,927th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Adair?: In the 2010 Census, 83% of people named Adair identified as white (not Hispanic), and 9.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Adair?: John Adair, American politician (1757–1840), followed by Jean Adair.
Where is the surname Adair most common?: Wikidata records people named Adair in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Is the surname Adair getting more or less common?: More common. 17,969 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,708 in 2010, up 4.1%.
Is Adair also a first name?: Yes. Adair is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.