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Brady vs Brailey

American parents have registered 98,908 Bradys since 1880, against 1,181 Braileys. Brady is still ahead, with 1,123 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brady Brailey

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 2018, when Brady had 1,435 and Brailey had 53.

Side by side

  Brady Brailey
Total US births 98,9081,181
Most in one year 5,01579
Babies in 2025 1,12312
Estimated living today 94,0001,200
Median age today 2014
Peak year 20072012
Best rank 93rd boys2,356th girls
Rank in 2025 321st8,362nd
First recorded 18831994
Girls / boys 2,138 / 96,7701,176 / 5

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 Bradys alive today are over 20; half the Braileys are over 14. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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