Brantly
Of English origin, meaning a person from the bramble-covered clearing or field.
Name Census estimates that about 848 living Americans carry the first name Brantly. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Brantly today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brantly births was 2013 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brantly. 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
848
~ 1 in 404,191 Americans
Peak year
2013
103 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,560
Tracked since 1972
Census
Brantly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,021 people with the first name Brantly, which placed it at #12,243 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
#12,243
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,021 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brantly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brantly is White at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Brantly 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 Brantly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.3% · 912
- Two or more races3.8% · 39
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 35
- Black or African American1.7% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Brantly
Out of the 859 babies given the name Brantly since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Brantly as a male name
- Ranked #12,560 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (103 births)
Brantly as a female name
- Ranked #17,327 in 2012
- 5 female births in 2012
- Peak: 2012 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brantly leans strongly male. 971 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 42 female bearers (4.1%).
Popularity
Brantly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brantly from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 517 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
Brantly 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 Brantly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brantlys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, Florida, Ohio recorded the most babies named Brantly, while Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brantly
The name Brantly is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "brant" meaning "steep" or "high" and "leah" meaning "woodland clearing" or "meadow". It is believed to have first emerged as a surname in the 12th century, referring to someone who lived near a steep woodland clearing or high meadow.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brantly can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which documented landowners in England after the Norman Conquest. The name appeared as "Brantlei", likely referring to a location or estate owned by an individual with that surname.
In the Middle Ages, the name Brantly was occasionally used as a given name, particularly in rural areas of England. However, it remained relatively uncommon until the 16th and 17th centuries when it gained popularity among the English gentry and nobility.
One notable historical figure with the name Brantly was Sir John Brantly (c. 1560-1637), an English politician and Member of Parliament who served during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I. Another was Captain William Brantly (1644-1711), an English naval officer and explorer who sailed with the Royal Navy and made several voyages to the West Indies.
In the 18th century, the name Brantly appeared in various literary works, including the poetry of William Wordsworth and the novels of Jane Austen. One character named Brantly Danvers appeared in Austen's unfinished novel "Sanditon", published posthumously in 1817.
During the 19th century, the name Brantly gained some popularity in the United States, particularly in the southern states. One notable American with the name was Brantly Boyd (1819-1891), a Presbyterian minister and author from Virginia who served as the Chaplain of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Another notable figure was Brantly Raleigh (1854-1912), an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina who served as the Attorney General of North Carolina and later as a United States Senator.
In more recent times, the name Brantly has remained relatively uncommon, though it has been used occasionally as a given name in various English-speaking countries. Some notable individuals with the name Brantly include Brantly Somerville (1895-1976), an American jazz musician and bandleader, and Brantly Neville (born 1957), an American stage and television actor.
People
Brantly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brantly 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
Brantly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brantly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 848 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brantly 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 404,191 US residents.
Is Brantly a common name?
We classify Brantly as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 859 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brantly most popular?
The single biggest year for Brantly was 2013, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brantly is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brantly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,021 people with the name Brantly, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,243 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 Brantly 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 Brantly?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brantly leans strongly male. 971 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 42 female bearers (4.1%). 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 Brantly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brantly is White at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Brantly most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brantly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.3% (912 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 Brantly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brantly a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Brantly 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 Brantly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brantly 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 Brantly 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 have the name Brantly?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.