Adaline reached its peak at rank 184 in 2016 and now sits at 194, with about 17,300 cumulative American girls on SSA record. The chart history is mostly 21st-century — Adaline existed in 19th-century American records as an alternative spelling of Adeline, then disappeared from the U.S. top 1000 entirely for most of the 20th century before returning around 2010.
The Germanic root via Adeline
Adaline is a spelling variant of Adeline, both ultimately deriving from the Germanic root adal, meaning "noble," the same root that gives Adelaide, Ada, and Adalynn. The -ine and -aline suffixes are French and Latin diminutive endings that became fashionable in 18th and 19th-century European naming.
The two spellings — Adaline and Adeline — coexist on the modern SSA chart as separate entries. Adeline holds the larger share at present, but Adaline's chart presence has grown since the mid-2010s and now represents a distinct naming choice rather than a misspelling.
The Age of Adaline lift
The 2015 film The Age of Adaline, starring Blake Lively as a woman who stops aging at 29, gave the specific Adaline spelling a clean cultural anchor that distinguished it from the more common Adeline. The film's release year and Adaline's 2016 chart peak line up cleanly.
The film performed modestly at the box office but had a longer cultural tail through streaming and social-media discussion. Parents searching for a vintage-feeling name with a recent pop-culture touch found Adaline a tidy answer.
The counter-reading
Worth flagging the Adaline-versus-Adeline spelling decision. Adeline is more historically rooted in American 19th-century naming and reads slightly more classical. Adaline reads slightly fresher and carries the recent film association. Both are correct, but the bearer of Adaline will spend a lifetime spelling it (most American grandparents will default to Adeline).
The nickname menu (Addy, Ada, Aline, Lina) gives parents flexibility either way. Sibling pairings on naming forums lean toward similarly long-vintage picks: Adaline and Genevieve, Adaline and Madeline, Adaline and Josephine. For more in this lane, browse Germanic girl names. The Age of Adaline film's protagonist was named Adaline Bowman (ah-DAH-lin), which also locked in the slightly different stress pattern from the more standard AD-uh-line reading of the older Adeline. Sibling pairings lean toward similarly long-vintage picks: Adaline and Madeline, Adaline and Caroline, Adaline and Josephine.