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Brandilyn vs Brandy

American parents have registered 108,861 Brandys since 1880, against 664 Brandilyns. Brandy is still ahead, with 58 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Brandilyn against Brandy, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Brandilyn Brandy

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

Brandy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1942 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Brandilyn had 6 and Brandy had 147.

Side by side

  Brandilyn Brandy
Total US births 664108,861
Most in one year 386,963
Babies in 2025 under 558
Estimated living today 640105,000
Median age today 3944
Peak year 19791981
Best rank 2,430th girls41st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,067th
First recorded 19711942
Girls / boys 664 / 0106,559 / 2,302

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 Brandys alive today are over 44; half the Brandilyns are over 39. That is 5 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: Brandilyn and Brandy.