Humanverse

Brady vs Brandalyn

American parents have registered 98,908 Bradys since 1880, against 581 Brandalyns. Brady is still ahead, with 1,123 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brady Brandalyn

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 1979, when Brady had 497 and Brandalyn had 25.

Side by side

  Brady Brandalyn
Total US births 98,908581
Most in one year 5,01528
Babies in 2025 1,123under 5
Estimated living today 94,000560
Median age today 2040
Peak year 20071982
Best rank 93rd boys3,093rd girls
Rank in 2025 321stunranked
First recorded 18831969
Girls / boys 2,138 / 96,770581 / 0

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 Brandalyns alive today are over 40; half the Bradys are over 20. That is 20 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 Brandalyn.