Humanverse

Brennan vs Breyden

American parents have registered 35,487 Brennans since 1880, against 1,115 Breydens. Brennan is still ahead, with 236 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brennan 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

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 2023, when Brennan had 229 and Breyden had 23.

Side by side

  Brennan Breyden
Total US births 35,4871,115
Most in one year 1,55069
Babies in 2025 23623
Estimated living today 35,0001,100
Median age today 2215
Peak year 20092008
Best rank 242nd boys2,028th boys
Rank in 2025 1,002nd4,396th
First recorded 19161990
Girls / boys 2,229 / 33,2580 / 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 Brennans alive today are over 22; half the Breydens are over 15. That is 7 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 Breyden.