Humanverse

Brian vs Brittainy

American parents have registered 1,178,298 Brians since 1880, against 531 Brittainys. Brian is still ahead, with 979 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Brian against Brittainy, 1880 to 2025 0 10k 20k 30k 40k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Brian Brittainy

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

Brian has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1909 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1989, when Brian had 18,176 and Brittainy had 61.

Side by side

  Brian Brittainy
Total US births 1,178,298531
Most in one year 36,47761
Babies in 2025 979under 5
Estimated living today 1 million520
Median age today 4837
Peak year 19721989
Best rank 8th boys2,054th girls
Rank in 2025 339thunranked
First recorded 19091978
Girls / boys 4,563 / 1,173,735531 / 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 Brians alive today are over 48; half the Brittainys are over 37. That is 11 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: Brian and Brittainy.