Braelen
A Scottish variation of the masculine name Brayden meaning "brave".
Name Census estimates that about 271 living Americans carry the first name Braelen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Braelen today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Braelen births was 2009 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Braelen. 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.
People living today
271
~ 1 in 1,264,776 Americans
Peak year
2009
25 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,554
Tracked since 1999
Census
Braelen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 258 people with the first name Braelen, which placed it at #32,555 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
#32,555
National first-name rank
People counted
258
258 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
41.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Braelen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Braelen is Black at 41.5%. The next largest groups are White (36.8%) and Two or More Races (15.9%). 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 Braelen 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 Braelen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American41.5% · 107
- White36.8% · 95
- Two or more races15.9% · 41
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Braelen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Braelen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 135 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Braelen 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 Braelen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Braelens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Braelen
The name Braelen has its origins in the Celtic languages, particularly in the ancient Brittonic branch that gave rise to modern Welsh and Breton. It is believed to have emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 5th to 10th centuries CE, when these languages were widely spoken across regions of what is now Wales, Cornwall, and parts of northern France.
Braelen is thought to be a compound name, derived from the Welsh root words "bra" meaning "high" or "elevated," and "elen," which was a common Welsh feminine name meaning "bright" or "shining." Together, the name may have originally signified a person of high stature or elevated status, or perhaps someone with a bright or radiant demeanor.
Some scholars trace the earliest recorded instances of the name Braelen to medieval Welsh literature and poetry, where it was occasionally used as a character name or a descriptor. However, concrete evidence of its widespread usage during this time period remains scarce.
The first documented individual with the name Braelen appears to be Braelen ap Gwilym, a minor Welsh nobleman who lived in the early 15th century. Records indicate that he was a landowner and local official in the region of Pembrokeshire, Wales.
In the late 16th century, a Braelen Owain was noted as a renowned bard and poet in the court of the Tudor monarchs in England. His works, which celebrated Welsh culture and history, were highly regarded during the Renaissance period.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Braelen surfaced sporadically in various parts of the British Isles, often among families with Welsh or Cornish ancestry. Notable individuals included Braelen Griffith (1657-1725), a Welsh clergyman and scholar, and Braelen Trevallyn (1702-1779), a Cornish explorer and navigator who sailed with the British Royal Navy.
In more recent centuries, the name Braelen has remained relatively uncommon, though it has experienced a modest resurgence in popularity in certain regions, particularly in parts of the United States and Canada with significant Welsh or Celtic cultural influences.
People
Braelen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Braelen 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
Braelen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Braelen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 271 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Braelen 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 1,264,776 US residents.
Is Braelen a common name?
We classify Braelen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 273 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Braelen most popular?
The single biggest year for Braelen was 2009, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Braelen is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Braelen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 258 people with the name Braelen, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,555 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 Braelen 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 Braelen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Braelen leans strongly male. 224 people counted with this name were male (85.8%), compared with 37 female bearers (14.2%). 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 Braelen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Braelen is Black at 41.5%. The next largest groups are White (36.8%) and Two or More Races (15.9%). 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 Braelen most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Braelen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.5% (107 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 Braelen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Braelen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Braelen 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 Braelen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Braelen 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 Braelen 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 are called Braelen?
Find out how many people have the name Braelen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.