Hebrew name meaning "pleasure" or "delight"; appears as a male name in the Old Testament.
Adna is a name of Hebrew origin appearing in the Old Testament, derived from the root *'ednah* meaning 'pleasure,' 'delight,' or 'rejuvenation' — the same root that gives us Eden, the garden of primordial joy. In the Hebrew Bible, two distinct figures bear the name: one is a Israelite soldier mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah among the priests and Levites who returned from Babylonian exile, and the other appears in the Book of Ezra as a man who had taken a foreign wife, listed among those directed to separate from their spouses. Neither is a major figure, but the name's biblical presence grounded it firmly in the religious onomastic tradition of both Jewish and, later, Protestant communities.
Adna was used with some regularity in Puritan New England and among other Protestant communities who mined the Old Testament for names that felt scripturally authentic but were distinct from the overworked biblical staples. It appears in colonial records and on gravestones alongside other rare Hebrew names like Adah, Zillah, and Elnathan — names chosen not for their cultural cachet but for their direct connection to sacred text. This Puritan instinct for the rare and scriptural gave Adna a particular American flavor.
Today Adna is genuinely rare, sitting well outside any mainstream popularity chart. Its shortness and clean vowel sounds make it feel surprisingly modern alongside fashionable names like Ada or Edna — it could even be read as a midpoint between those two. For parents drawn to biblical names with authentic Hebrew roots but resistant to overused choices, Adna offers something almost entirely undiscovered, carrying its small scriptural history with unassuming dignity.