Hadrian is the English form of the Latin Hadrianus, which means "from Hadria", a town in northern Italy that also gave the Adriatic Sea its name; it is the older form of Adrian. The Roman emperor Hadrian built the wall across northern Britain that still bears his name. In the United States Hadrian is a rare, scholarly alternative to Adrian: it ranked number 4879 in 2000 and reached its best position so far, number 2617, in 2025 with 50 boys.