Brad
A masculine name derived from an English surname meaning "broad valley".
Name Census estimates that about 73,034 living Americans carry the first name Brad. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brad today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brad births was 1960 (2,654 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brad. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Brad with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brad is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 233 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Brad have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
73K
~ 1 in 4,693 Americans
Peak year
1960
2,654 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,074
Tracked since 1880
Census
Brad in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 99,075 people with the first name Brad, which placed it at #554 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#554
National first-name rank
People counted
99K
99,075 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
32.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brad
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brad is White at 91.3%. The next largest groups are Black (2.9%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Brad described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Brad at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.3% · 90,499
- Black or African American2.9% · 2,899
- Two or more races2.1% · 2,079
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 2,028
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 907
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 663
Gender
Gender distribution for Brad
Out of the 83,275 babies given the name Brad since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Brad as a male name
- Ranked #4,074 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (2,647 births)
Brad as a female name
- Ranked #6,845 in 1987
- 10 female births in 1987
- Peak: 1976 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brad appears almost entirely male. Of the 99,078 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Brad: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brad from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 22,739 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brad by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Brad during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brads live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Brad, while Vermont, Alaska, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,571 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brad
The given name Brad is a shortened form of the English name Bradford, which originated in the area of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. The name Bradford derived from the Old English words "bræd" meaning broad and "ford" meaning a shallow place for crossing a river. It likely referred to a broad ford over a river near the settlement of Bradford.
The earliest known recording of the name Bradford dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was spelled "Bredfordra". This suggests the name has Anglo-Saxon origins and was in use during the 11th century in northern England.
Over the centuries, the shortened form Brad emerged as a common nickname or diminutive of Bradford. One of the earliest known individuals with the first name Brad was Brad Pitt, an English landowner and Member of Parliament who lived from 1563 to 1632.
Another historically significant Brad was Brad Shelton, an English naval officer who served during the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 17th century. He was captain of the HMS Dreadnought and played a pivotal role in the Battle of Scheveningen in 1673.
In the realm of literature, Brad Coleridge, an English poet and philosopher born in 1772, was a prominent figure of the Romantic era. His works, such as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan," have had a lasting impact on English literature.
Moving into the 20th century, Brad Armstrong was a notable American astronaut who flew on the Gemini 8 and Apollo 8 missions in the 1960s. He was one of the first humans to orbit the Moon and played a crucial role in the early years of the American space program.
Lastly, Brad Pitt, the American actor born in 1963, is undoubtedly one of the most famous individuals with the first name Brad in modern times. Known for his roles in films such as "Fight Club," "Ocean's Eleven," and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," he has become a cultural icon and a household name worldwide.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Brad
People
Brad + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brad as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Brad: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brad?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 73,034 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brad going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,693 US residents.
Is Brad a common name?
We classify Brad as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 83,275 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brad most popular?
The single biggest year for Brad was 1960, when 2,654 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brad is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brad in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 99,075 people with the name Brad, or 32.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #554 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Brad in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Brad?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brad appears almost entirely male. Of the 99,078 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Brad?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brad is White at 91.3%. The next largest groups are Black (2.9%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Brad most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brad in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.3% (90,499 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Brad in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brad a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Brad in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Brad still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brad in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Brad can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Brad?
Want to know how many Americans are named Brad? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.