Braylon
An English masculine name referring to someone who is brave or a champion.
Name Census estimates that about 18,483 living Americans carry the first name Braylon. It is a predominantly male name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Braylon today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Braylon births was 2009 (1,702 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Braylon. 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 Braylon with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Braylon is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 158 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Braylon is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 18,544 Americans
Peak year
2009
1,702 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#727
Tracked since 1981
Census
Braylon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,829 people with the first name Braylon, which placed it at #1,992 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
#1,992
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
13,829 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Braylon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Braylon is Black at 42.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Braylon 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 Braylon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.2% · 5,841
- White37.5% · 5,187
- Two or more races12.1% · 1,674
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 885
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 158
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 84
Gender
Gender distribution for Braylon
Out of the 18,655 babies given the name Braylon since 1880, 99.2% 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.
Braylon as a male name
- Ranked #727 in 2024
- 359 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (1,695 births)
Braylon as a female name
- Ranked #13,712 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Braylon leans strongly male. 13,647 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 183 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Braylon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Braylon from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,364 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
Braylon 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 Braylon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Braylons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Braylon, while North Dakota, Connecticut, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 417 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Braylon
The name Braylon is a relatively modern name, first appearing in the late 20th century. It is an English language name, likely derived from a combination of the names Brayden and Colton. The name does not have any known historical or cultural roots prior to its emergence in the United States in the late 1900s.
While the name lacks a deep historical background, there are a few notable individuals who have borne the name Braylon in recent times. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was Braylon Edwards, an American football player born in 1983. Edwards played wide receiver in the NFL for several teams, including the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets.
Another individual named Braylon is Braylon Rayson, an American professional basketball player born in 1994. Rayson played college basketball at Central Michigan University before embarking on a professional career in various leagues around the world.
Braylon Culver, born in 1996, is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Indiana Pacers in the NBA. Culver was a standout player in college at Texas Tech University before being drafted in the first round of the 2019 NBA draft.
Braylon Galloway, born in 2004, is a young American actor best known for his role as Charles Wallace Murry in the 2018 film adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time." Despite his young age, Galloway has already made a mark in the entertainment industry.
Another notable figure named Braylon is Braylon Heard, an American football player born in 1992. Heard played running back at various colleges, including Cisco College and Shepherd University, before pursuing a professional career in indoor football leagues.
While the name Braylon is relatively new and lacks a deep historical lineage, it has gained popularity in recent decades, with several individuals bearing the name achieving success in various fields, particularly in sports and entertainment.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Braylon
People
Braylon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Braylon 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
Braylon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Braylon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18,483 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Braylon 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 18,544 US residents.
Is Braylon a common name?
We classify Braylon as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,655 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Braylon most popular?
The single biggest year for Braylon was 2009, when 1,702 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Braylon 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 Braylon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,829 people with the name Braylon, or 4.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,992 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 Braylon 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 Braylon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Braylon leans strongly male. 13,647 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 183 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Braylon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Braylon is Black at 42.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Braylon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Braylon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.2% (5,841 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 Braylon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Braylon a male name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Braylon 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 Braylon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Braylon 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 Braylon 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 Braylon?
You can see how many people have the name Braylon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.