Adams

Son of Adam.

Origin: South West, England
Famous bearer: William Adams (1564–1620), navigator, the first Englishman in Japan
Register: English family

Territory of Adams

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Adams

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Adams community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Adams has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Adams clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Adams name mean?

Patronymic, son of Adam.

The history of Adams

Protestant England loved Biblical patriarchs as fixed surnames. The Kentish navigator William Adams (1564–1620) was, on the arrival of the Dutch ship Liefde at Bungo in 1600, the first Englishman in Japan, advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the model for John Blackthorne in James Clavell's Shōgun.

Champions of the Adams name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

John Adams
Founding Father, author of the oldest written constitution still in force, and the second President of the United States.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Adams name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk London in 1818Enter →

St Paul's, Covent Garden and the gaslit West End — Regency London, soot-hazed and horse-drawn.

Notable bearers of the Adams name

William Adams (1564–1620), navigator, the first Englishman in Japan
Douglas Adams (1952–2001), novelist

Stories of Adams

Will Adams summoned to Edo
1600
On the morning of the twelfth of April 1600, the Dutch trading ship De Liefde (one of the five ships of the Mahu-De Cordes Pacific Expedition of 1598 from Rotterdam, the only one of the five to survive the Pacific crossing) made landfall at Usuki on the east coast of Kyushu in southern Japan, with about twenty-four surviving Dutch and English crew of the original hundred-and-ten. The pilot-major of the ship, William Adams, thirty-six years old, Kentish-born, formerly a Royal Navy pilot in the Drake Spanish-Armada campaign of 1588, was the only Englishman of the surviving crew. The ship was held by the Bungo daimyo; the surviving officers were summoned to the court of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the of the five-regent Council of the Toyotomi minority, who would within six months become the shogun of Japan) at Osaka on the fifteenth of May 1600. Ieyasu, by his curiosity about the European arrivals and by his strategic-political interest in European shipbuilding-and-mathematical-navigation expertise, kept Adams in Japan; he was made a hatamoto (a samurai retainer of the shogun) in 1605, given an estate at Hemi near Yokosuka in Sagami province, and the Japanese name Miura Anjin (the pilot of Miura). He was never permitted to leave Japan. He married a Japanese wife (Oyuki, daughter of a samurai family of the Edo road-station, no children of his first English marriage to Mary Hyn at Stepney; two children, Joseph and Susanna, by Oyuki). He died at Hirado on the northwest coast of Kyushu on the sixteenth of May 1620, fifty-six years old. He is the model for John Blackthorne in James Clavell's Shōgun (1975) and the 1980 NBC television series and the 2024 FX-Hulu series of the same name. The real story is the slow assimilation of the first Englishman in Japan into the service of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Adams mean?

Patronymic, son of Adam. Protestant England loved Biblical patriarchs as fixed surnames.

Where does the Adams family come from?

The Adams family is rooted in South West and South East, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset & Bristol and Dorset & Wiltshire. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Adams family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Adams name has been concentrated in Birmingham & the Black Country, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire & Herefordshire, Shropshire and London. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Adams a England surname?

Yes, Adams is a England surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is England, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Adams surname?

Protestant England loved Biblical patriarchs as fixed surnames. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Adams name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Adams family known for?

Son of Adam. Protestant England loved Biblical patriarchs as fixed surnames.

Who is the most famous Adams?

The best-known bearer of the Adams name is William Adams (1564–1620), navigator, the first Englishman in Japan. Other prominent figures of the family include Douglas Adams (1952–2001), novelist.

Who are some famous Adamses?

Notable bearers of the Adams name include William Adams (1564–1620), navigator, the first Englishman in Japan and Douglas Adams (1952–2001), novelist. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Adams family?

The Adams family is associated with Will Adams summoned to Edo. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Will Adams summoned to Edo?

On the morning of the twelfth of April 1600, the Dutch trading ship De Liefde (one of the five ships of the Mahu-De Cordes Pacific Expedition of 1598 from Rotterdam, the only one of the five to survive the Pacific crossing) made landfall at Usuki on the east coast of Kyushu in southern Japan, with about twenty-four surviving Dutch and English crew of the original hundred-and-ten. The pilot-major of the ship, William Adams, thirty-six years old, Kentish-born, formerly a Royal Navy pilot in the Drake Spanish-Armada campaign of 1588, was the only Englishman of the surviving crew. The event is dated to 1600.

Where is the Adams surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Adams surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Adams family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Adams family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Adams family today?

The seat for the head of the Adams family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.