French form of Adele, from Germanic 'adal' meaning 'noble.'
Adelle is an elegant variant of Adele and Adela, names rooted in the Old High German element "adal," meaning noble lineage or nobility — a concept so central to early medieval Germanic culture that it seeded dozens of names still in circulation today, from Adelaide to Alice to Albert. The Frankish and Norman nobility carried Adela across Europe in the early medieval period; Adela of Normandy, daughter of William the Conqueror and a formidable political figure in her own right, helped establish the name's aristocratic resonance in England and France simultaneously. The name's literary credentials are substantial.
Adèle appears in Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" as the young French ward of Mr. Rochester, a character whose Parisian charm and artistic sensibility gave the name a romantic, Continental shimmer in the Victorian English imagination. The slight melodrama of her situation — orphaned, foreign, dependent — made Adèle a name associated with both vulnerability and grace.
Later, the opera world embraced Adele in Strauss's "Die Fledermaus," a comedic role that showcased the name in a lighter, more playful register. The spelling "Adelle" with the double-l adds a visual fullness to the name, distinguishing it from the two-syllable Adele and the more formal Adela, while keeping it close enough to its lineage to share the inheritance. In the 21st century, the British singer Adele (born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins) brought the name roaring back into global consciousness with her emotionally devastating voice and her deliberate choice to perform under her given name alone. Adelle, as the more uncommon spelling, offers parents the cultural resonance of that revival while quietly stepping a half-step aside from it.