Humanverse

Brody vs Brownie

American parents have registered 81,960 Brodys since 1880, against 1,231 Brownies. Brody is still ahead, with 1,492 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Brody against Brownie, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Brody Brownie

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

Of the 119 years in which either name was published, Brody for 65 years and Brownie for 54 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Brody Brownie
Total US births 81,9601,231
Most in one year 6,31953
Babies in 2025 1,492under 5
Estimated living today 81,000160
Median age today 1481
Peak year 20081923
Best rank 70th boys1,388th girls
Rank in 2025 236thunranked
First recorded 19541892
Girls / boys 282 / 81,678727 / 504

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 Brownies alive today are over 81; half the Brodys are over 14. That is 67 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: Brody and Brownie.