Breindel
A feminine Yiddish name meaning "little fire" or "spark".
Name Census estimates that about 207 living Americans carry the first name Breindel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Breindel today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Breindel births was 2014 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Breindel. 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 Breindel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
207
~ 1 in 1,655,818 Americans
Peak year
2014
16 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,722
Tracked since 1989
Census
Breindel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 193 people with the first name Breindel, which placed it at #39,252 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
#39,252
National first-name rank
People counted
193
193 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Breindel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Breindel is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). 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 Breindel 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 Breindel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 167
- Black or African American9.8% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
- Two or more races0.5% · 1
Popularity
Breindel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Breindel 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 92 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Breindel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Breindel 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 Breindel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Breindels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Breindel
The name Breindel is a feminine given name of uncertain origin, with no clear consensus among scholars about its linguistic roots or cultural background. Some theories suggest it may be derived from an Old Germanic or Scandinavian language, potentially related to words meaning "broad" or "wide," but these connections are tenuous at best.
Despite its obscure origins, there are a few notable historical figures who bore this uncommon name. One of the earliest recorded instances is Breindel of Marburg, a 13th-century German mystic and Beguine who wrote extensively on spiritual matters and is venerated by some Christian traditions.
In the 16th century, Breindel Anliker was a Swiss heroine renowned for her bravery during the Swabian War, when she is said to have rallied the women of her village to defend against invading Swabian forces. Her exploits were celebrated in local folklore and literature.
Jumping ahead to the 19th century, Breindel Nansen was a Norwegian painter and artist, known for her landscapes and portraits capturing the rugged beauty of her homeland. She was active in the latter half of the 1800s and helped pave the way for later generations of female artists.
Another figure of note is Breindel Kastenbaum, a Polish-born author and Holocaust survivor who documented her harrowing experiences in the ghettos and concentration camps during World War II. Her memoir, "Surviving the Holocaust," published in the 1960s, is a powerful testament to human resilience and the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Finally, in the realm of literature, there is Breindel Roskies, a Canadian writer and academic who has published extensively on Yiddish literature and culture. Her works have shed light on this rich literary tradition and its significance in the Jewish diaspora experience.
While the name Breindel remains relatively uncommon, these individuals have left their mark on various fields, from spirituality and art to literature and history, preserving the legacy of this enigmatic moniker across different eras and cultures.
People
Breindel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Breindel 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
Breindel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Breindel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 207 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Breindel 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 1,655,818 US residents.
Is Breindel a common name?
We classify Breindel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 210 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Breindel most popular?
The single biggest year for Breindel was 2014, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Breindel is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Breindel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 193 people with the name Breindel, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,252 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 Breindel 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 Breindel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Breindel leans strongly female. 178 people counted with this name were female (89.9%), compared with 20 male bearers (10.1%). 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 Breindel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Breindel is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). 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 Breindel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Breindel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (167 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 Breindel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Breindel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Breindel in the SSA data are female. 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 Breindel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Breindel 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 Breindel 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 Breindel?
Want to know how many Americans are named Breindel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.