adopt vs designate

adopt

verb
  • To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility. 

  • To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child. 

  • To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally. 

  • To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild. 

  • To select and take or approve. 

  • To beat an opponent ten times in a row. 

designate

verb
  • To indicate or set apart for a purpose or duty; — with to or for; to designate an officer for or to the command of a post or station. 

  • To mark out and make known; to point out; to indicate; to show; to distinguish by marks or description 

  • To call by a distinctive title; to name. 

adj
  • Designated; appointed; chosen. 

  • Used after a role title to indicate that the person has been selected but has yet to take up the role. 

How often have the words adopt and designate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )