Adnan — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ع-د-ن (ʿ-d-n), "to stay in a place, to settle, to remain fixed". ʿAdnān is built on the intensive pattern faʿlān: one who settles and stays put — the opposite of the one who moves on.

From the same root: ʿadn, the word behind jannāt ʿadn, the Gardens of lasting residence that the Qur'an promises (Maryam 19:61) and that English renders as Eden; and maʿdin, a mine — the place where a metal stays fixed in the ground — plural maʿādin, from which modern Arabic takes maʿdanī, mineral.

In the lineage: Adnan is the forefather from whom the northern Arabs, Quraysh among them, trace their descent. The genealogists agree on the line running from the Prophet ﷺ up to Adnan; above him, back towards Ismail, the reports differ, and the more careful scholars stopped at his name rather than fill the gap. The name therefore marks the point at which a remembered lineage ends and reconstruction begins.

Spellings: Adnan, Adnane (French/Maghrebi), Adnan (Turkish), Adnan (Indonesian, Urdu), عدنان.

Pronunciation: ʿad-NĀN, opening with ʿayn and stressed on the long second syllable.

Note: what the dictionaries give as the meaning is the settled dwelling, not the genealogy; the ancestor is why the name is given, not what it means.