Humanverse

Brendan vs Brenleigh

American parents have registered 92,141 Brendans since 1880, against 528 Brenleighs. Brendan is still ahead, with 195 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brendan Brenleigh

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

Brendan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Brendan had 269 and Brenleigh had 55.

Side by side

  Brendan Brenleigh
Total US births 92,141528
Most in one year 4,00555
Babies in 2025 19536
Estimated living today 88,000530
Median age today 287
Peak year 19992022
Best rank 96th boys2,995th girls
Rank in 2025 1,097th3,975th
First recorded 19122007
Girls / boys 325 / 91,816528 / 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 Brendans alive today are over 28; half the Brenleighs are over 7. That is 21 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: Brendan and Brenleigh.