Hebrew name meaning 'gentle' or 'delicate,' appearing in the Old Testament book of Ezra.
Adin is a name of Hebrew origin found in two books of the Hebrew Bible — Ezra and Nehemiah — where it designates the head of a clan among the Jewish exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem in the 5th century BCE. The name's Hebrew meaning is given variously as "slender," "delicate," or "pleasurable, adorned" — suggesting a sense of refined beauty rather than physical fragility. In biblical genealogical lists the descendants of Adin number in the hundreds, indicating a significant and respected clan within the restored Jewish community.
The name occupies a quiet but continuous place in Jewish naming tradition, particularly among Sephardic communities, and it appears in medieval Hebrew literature and rabbinic texts as a name connoting elegance and pleasantness. In modern Israel, Adin has been borne by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz — later Adin Even-Israel — the remarkable Talmudic scholar whose monumental translation and commentary on the entire Babylonian Talmud into modern Hebrew (and then into multiple other languages) made ancient Jewish wisdom accessible to readers worldwide. His work, spanning decades, represents one of the great scholarly achievements of the 20th century, and it has given the name Adin a particular association with intellectual depth and Jewish learning.
In the English-speaking world, Adin is sometimes encountered as a variant of Aidan, the Irish name meaning "little fire" derived from the Celtic Aodh — though the two names are etymologically unrelated. This visual overlap has introduced Adin to families of non-Jewish heritage as a sleek, short alternative to the now-ubiquitous Aidan. The name's brevity and soft ending give it a gentle, unhurried quality that works equally well for boys and girls.