Answer: An “Adam's apple” is a common name for the cartilage surrounding the thyroid and throat in the front of the neck. The Adam’s apple is also called a “laryngeal prominence”. Although it is present at birth, the “laryngeal prominence” or “Adam's apple” is mostly visible in men—following puberty—due to more significant growth of the larynx. A “laryngeal prominence” CAN occur in woman, too, if that woman receives testosterone hormone therapy.
Males typically have higher testosterone levels than females, so they also usually have larger Adam’s apples.
The name "Adam's apple” most probably developed from the biblical story of Eve and Adam. (See Genesis 2:16 -17; 3:1-13 KJV) “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:16-17 KJV)
Yet there seems to have been an apocryphal tale in which Adam took a bite of the forbidden fruit (historically presumed to be Malus or Malus domestica, aka from an “apple tree”). Yet in the bible, this tree is described as the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. In any case, in this apocryphal tale (meaning a “not-in-the-bible” story) somehow a piece of that apple, became lodged in Adam’s throat, or somehow Adam could not quite swallow the bite of apple, nor was he able to spit it out. Make of that, whatever you will.
Merriam Webster Why Is It Called an 'Adam's Apple'? Merriam-Webster Word History (accessed June 11, 2022) has a slightly different explanation:
The term (or technically "laryngeal protuberance," formed by the largest cartilage of the larynx) has been used in English since at least 1625. It goes by analogous names in other European languages, among them French (pomme d'Adam; the Adam's apple, French also use morceau d'Adam—"Adam's morsel"); Italian (pomo d’Adamo); and German (Adamsapfel). But decades before (and after) Adam’s applecame to refer to that anatomical item, it was used as a term for several edible items of the fruit variety, among them plantains, pomelos, and citrons. This rather (from a modern perspective, anyway) willy-nilly application of the term was in keeping with a habit that dates at least to medieval times, when European writers used Latin variations on the same theme—pomum Adam, pomum Adami, Adami pomum, etc. —for various fruits, among them the cherished pomegranate. The implication was likely that the vaunted fruit belonged in the category of those "fruits of Paradise" supposed to have been enjoyed in the long-lost Eden.Meanwhile, medieval Arab medical writers were dealing with throat anatomy by way of analogy with the same fruit, and they settled on "pomegranate" as a name for the laryngeal protuberance. What inspired the name is unknown. Was it physical resemblance—did the texture of the skin of the pomegranate remind them of the texture of the skin covering the protuberance? Or was it something symbolic? The pomegranate has long been a potent symbol in literature and religion: the biblical King Solomon had an orchard of pomegranates; in Greek mythology, it was Persephone's act of eating a single pomegranate seed in the underworld that doomed her forever to spend 1/3 of every year in Hades; and the prophet Muhammad reportedly recommended pomegranates: "Eat the pomegranate, for it purges the system of envy and hatred."
Whatever the reason the medical writers had for calling the laryngeal protuberance a "pomegranate," it's likely that European writers saw that designation in its Latin translation, pomum granatum, and then applied the synonymous Latin pomum Adami to the same body part.
June 11, 2022, Myth Woodling