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Breck vs Brennan

American parents have registered 35,487 Brennans since 1880, against 3,092 Brecks. Brennan is still ahead, with 236 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Breck against Brennan, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Breck Brennan

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

Of the 82 years in which either name was published, Brennan for 63 years and Breck for 19 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Breck Brennan
Total US births 3,09235,487
Most in one year 931,550
Babies in 2025 41236
Estimated living today 2,90035,000
Median age today 1922
Peak year 20162009
Best rank 1,774th boys242nd boys
Rank in 2025 2,991st1,002nd
First recorded 19451916
Girls / boys 444 / 2,6482,229 / 33,258

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 Brennans alive today are over 22; half the Brecks are over 19. That is 3 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: Breck and Brennan.