Humanverse

Brena vs Brett

American parents have registered 162,513 Bretts since 1880, against 794 Brenas. Brett is still ahead, with 144 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Brena against Brett, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Brena Brett

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

Brett has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1926 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Brena had 25 and Brett had 370.

Side by side

  Brena Brett
Total US births 794162,513
Most in one year 364,904
Babies in 2025 under 5144
Estimated living today 770149,000
Median age today 2540
Peak year 20071986
Best rank 4,213th girls69th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,382nd
First recorded 19501926
Girls / boys 794 / 03,404 / 159,109

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 Bretts alive today are over 40; half the Brenas are over 25. That is 15 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: Brena and Brett.