Brekken
A variant of the Norse name Brekki, meaning "hillside" or "hillock".
Name Census estimates that about 494 living Americans carry the first name Brekken. It is a predominantly male name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Brekken today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brekken births was 2016 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brekken. 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
494
~ 1 in 693,835 Americans
Peak year
2016
40 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,101
Tracked since 2001
Census
Brekken in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 460 people with the first name Brekken, which placed it at #21,867 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
#21,867
National first-name rank
People counted
460
460 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brekken
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brekken is White at 91.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Brekken 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 Brekken at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.5% · 421
- Two or more races5.0% · 23
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 8
- Black or African American0.7% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Brekken
Brekken leans heavily male at 95.6% of total registrations, but 22 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Brekken as a male name
- Ranked #11,101 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (37 births)
Brekken as a female name
- Ranked #16,678 in 2016
- 5 female births in 2016
- Peak: 2009 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brekken leans strongly male. 383 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 80 female bearers (17.3%).
Popularity
Brekken: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brekken from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 303 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
Brekken 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 Brekken during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brekkens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah recorded the most babies named Brekken, while Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brekken
The name Brekken is of Scandinavian origin, specifically from the Old Norse language spoken by the Norse peoples of Northern Europe during the Viking Age (793-1066 AD). It is believed to be derived from the Old Norse word "brekkur," which means "slope" or "hillside."
The name was likely used as a descriptive term for someone who lived near a hillside or sloping terrain. It may have also been used as a topographic surname, indicating a person's place of origin or residence. The earliest recorded instances of the name date back to the 9th or 10th century in Scandinavia, particularly in regions like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Brekken was Brekken Halvorsson, a Norwegian chieftain who lived in the late 10th century. He was a prominent leader in the Trøndelag region of Norway and is mentioned in the Heimskringla, a collection of sagas written by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
Another notable figure was Brekken Tordsson, a Norwegian farmer and landowner who lived in the 12th century. He is recorded in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum, a collection of medieval Norwegian documents and charters, as having owned substantial lands in the Gudbrandsdalen valley.
In the 13th century, there was a Brekken Arnbjørnsson, a Viking warrior and explorer who is said to have accompanied the Norse explorer Erik the Red on one of his voyages to Greenland. He is mentioned in the Grænlendinga Saga, a saga chronicling the settlement of Greenland by Norse settlers.
During the 14th century, a man named Brekken Torgilsson was a respected lawspeaker (a legal authority and reciter of laws) in the Icelandic Commonwealth. He is mentioned in the Sturlunga Saga, a collection of sagas detailing the history of the Sturlung family in Iceland.
In the 15th century, there was a Brekken Eriksson, a Norwegian merchant and ship owner who was involved in the lucrative trade between Norway and the Hanseatic League, a powerful commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northern Europe.
The name Brekken, with its strong ties to the Norse history and culture, has endured through the centuries and continues to be used as a given name, particularly in Scandinavian countries.
People
Brekken + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brekken 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
Brekken: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brekken?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 494 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brekken 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 693,835 US residents.
Is Brekken a common name?
We classify Brekken as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 498 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brekken most popular?
The single biggest year for Brekken was 2016, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brekken is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brekken in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 460 people with the name Brekken, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,867 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 Brekken 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 Brekken?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brekken leans strongly male. 383 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 80 female bearers (17.3%). 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 Brekken?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brekken is White at 91.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Brekken most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brekken in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.5% (421 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 Brekken in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brekken a male name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Brekken 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 Brekken still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brekken 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 Brekken 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 named Brekken?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.