Humanverse

Brendan vs Breyden

American parents have registered 92,141 Brendans since 1880, against 1,115 Breydens. Brendan is still ahead, with 195 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brendan Breyden

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 2025, when Brendan had 195 and Breyden had 23.

Side by side

  Brendan Breyden
Total US births 92,1411,115
Most in one year 4,00569
Babies in 2025 19523
Estimated living today 88,0001,100
Median age today 2815
Peak year 19992008
Best rank 96th boys2,028th boys
Rank in 2025 1,097th4,396th
First recorded 19121990
Girls / boys 325 / 91,8160 / 1,115

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 Breydens are over 15. That is 13 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 Breyden.