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Bradely vs Brady

American parents have registered 98,908 Bradys since 1880, against 55 Bradelys. Brady is still ahead, with 1,123 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bradely against Brady, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bradely Brady

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Brady has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1969, when Bradely had 11 and Brady had 266.

Side by side

  Bradely Brady
Total US births 5598,908
Most in one year 115,015
Babies in 2025 under 51,123
Estimated living today 5094,000
Median age today 4220
Peak year 19692007
Best rank 2,682nd boys93rd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked321st
First recorded 19691883
Girls / boys 0 / 552,138 / 96,770

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Bradelys alive today are over 42; half the Bradys are over 20. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Bradely and Brady.