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Brennan vs Breonna

American parents have registered 35,487 Brennans since 1880, against 5,169 Breonnas. Brennan is still ahead, with 236 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brennan Breonna

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

Brennan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1916 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1993, when Brennan had 720 and Breonna had 266.

Side by side

  Brennan Breonna
Total US births 35,4875,169
Most in one year 1,550280
Babies in 2025 2368
Estimated living today 35,0005,100
Median age today 2225
Peak year 20091994
Best rank 242nd boys742nd girls
Rank in 2025 1,002nd10,917th
First recorded 19161978
Girls / boys 2,229 / 33,2585,169 / 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 Breonnas alive today are over 25; half the Brennans are over 22. 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: Brennan and Breonna.