The personal name Adam derives from the Hebrew noun ha adamah meaning "the ground" or "earth," from which it came to be used to refer to "man," since man was seen as a thing created by God from the earth. This is why the word is used in the Book of Genesis to refer to the first man. It is still a Hebrew given name, and its Biblical usage has ensured that it is also a common name in all countries which draw on Judaeo-Christian heritage. It is particularly common in Poland. In most languages its spelling is the same, although the pronunciation varies somewhat.

Adam also exists as a surname in many countries, although it is not as common in English as its derivative Adams (sometimes spelled Addams). In other languages there are similar surnames derived from Adam, such as Adamo, Adamov, Adamowicz, Adamski etc.

People with the given name Adam

• Adam was a German abbot and historian
• Adam was a Polish painter
• Adam Afriyie is a British politician
• Adam Ant was a 1980s pop singer
• Sir Adam Beck was a Canadian politician
• Adam of Bremen was a German historian
• Adam Carolla is an American actor
• Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was a Polish leader
• Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski was a Polish writer
• Adam d'Ambergau was a Bavarian compositor
• Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown was a British admiral
• Adam of Fulda was a German composer
• Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet
• Adam Green is an American musician
• Adam Ingram is a British politician
• Adam Kopyciński was a Polish composer
• Adam Cardinal Kozłowiecki is a Polish archbishop
• Adam Loftus was an Irish archbishop
• Adam Malik was an Indonesian Foreign Minister
• Adam Putnam is an American politician
• Adam Rapacki was a Polish Foreign Minister
• Adam Ries was a German mathematician
• Adam Daniel Rotfeld is the current Polish Foreign Minister
• Adam Sandler is an American film actor
• Adam Schiff is an American politician
• Adam Smith was a British economist
• Adam Smith is an American politician
• Adam Teuto was a German writer
• Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German who resisted the Nazi regime
• Adam Willis Wagnalls was an American dictionary publisher
• Adam Walker was a British astronomer
• Adam West is an American television actor
• Adam Zamoyski is an American historian

People with the surname Adam

• Adolphe Adam was a French composer and critic
• Albrecht Adam was a German painter
• Benno Adam was a German painter
• Emil Adam was a German painter
• Eugen Adam was a German painter
• Franz Adam was a German painter
• Heinrich Adam was a German painter
• Jacob Adam was a German copper etcher
• Johann Friedrich Adam was a German botanist, later called Michael Friedrich Adams
• Julius Adam was a German lithographer
• Melchior Adam was a German historian
• Robert Adam was a Scottish architect
• Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam was a French writer

Religious figure

• Adam is the name given to the first man in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures.

Fictional characters

• Adam (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Adam Mitchell was briefly a companion of the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who
• Black Adam is a cartoon character

Other

• Adam (mortar) was one on German's large mortars used in World War II
• Code Adam used in alerting the public of missing children.
• Coleco Adam is an early home computer
• Adam is the name given to the murder victim by Metropolitan Police in the Torso in the Thames murder case
• Adam@Home is a comic strip by Brian Basset
• ADAM (enzymes), a group of enzymes characterised by A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease domain.

See also

• Adams