Humanverse

Bryan vs Brynlie

American parents have registered 391,306 Bryans since 1880, against 938 Brynlies. Bryan is still ahead, with 1,005 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bryan against Brynlie, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bryan Brynlie

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

Bryan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2017, when Bryan had 1,840 and Brynlie had 65.

Side by side

  Bryan Brynlie
Total US births 391,306938
Most in one year 8,78874
Babies in 2025 1,00519
Estimated living today 355,000930
Median age today 3911
Peak year 19852011
Best rank 48th boys2,454th girls
Rank in 2025 336th6,116th
First recorded 18832001
Girls / boys 1,717 / 389,589938 / 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 Bryans alive today are over 39; half the Brynlies are over 11. That is 28 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: Bryan and Brynlie.