Genesis 5:2 uses the plural because God is speaking of the man and the woman together as mankind, while using the name “Adam” for them collectively.
Genesis 5:1–2 — “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”
Notice the deliberate movement in the wording:
- “created man”
- “made he him”
- “Male and female created he them”
- “blessed them”
- “called their name Adam”
Genesis 1 uses the same kind of collective language:
Genesis 1:26–27 — “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
So in these passages, “man” can refer to humanity as a race, consisting of male and female. Genesis 5:2 makes that especially plain by saying that God “called their name Adam.”
There are two related uses in Genesis that should be distinguished. Adam is the individual man’s name, as Genesis 3:17 says, “And unto Adam he said…,” but Adam is also used collectively of the human race in Genesis 5:2.
That does not mean Eve had no individual identity. Genesis explicitly says:
Genesis 3:20 — “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”
So Scripture gives both truths without contradiction: the woman individually was called Eve, while God called the man and woman together “Adam” in the sense of mankind.
There is also a significant marriage connection, though we should word it carefully. Genesis 2 says:
Genesis 2:24 — “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
Genesis 5:2 may suggest the unity God established between the first man and woman, but the text does not explicitly say that “their name Adam” was given because they were one flesh. The certain point is simpler: God regarded male and female together under the collective designation “Adam”—mankind.
This also protects an important biblical truth about sex and humanity. God did not create two unrelated kinds of humanity. He created one human race, “male and female,” both made in His image:
Genesis 1:27 — “So God created man in his own image… male and female created he them.”
At the same time, Scripture maintains the distinction between male and female. Their shared designation does not erase their God-given distinction.
One further doctrinal point is worth noting. In the New Testament, Adam individually is treated as the historical first man and as the one through whom sin entered the world:
Romans 5:12 — “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin…”
1 Corinthians 15:45 — “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul…”
So Genesis 5:2 is not denying Adam’s individual identity. It is showing that the word Adam can function both personally and collectively: Adam the man, and Adam as mankind.
In short, “their name Adam” is plural because God is naming the male and female together as the human race. The KJV itself establishes that usage by pairing “man” with “male and female… them” in both Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:1–2.
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