Humanverse

Brett vs Brette

American parents have registered 162,513 Bretts since 1880, against 612 Brettes. Brett is still ahead, with 144 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brett Brette

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 2022, when Brett had 237 and Brette had 11.

Side by side

  Brett Brette
Total US births 162,513612
Most in one year 4,90428
Babies in 2025 1446
Estimated living today 149,000590
Median age today 4034
Peak year 19861994
Best rank 69th boys3,790th girls
Rank in 2025 1,382nd13,208th
First recorded 19261962
Girls / boys 3,404 / 159,109601 / 11

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 Brettes are over 34. That is 6 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: Brett and Brette.