Brenda
A feminine name of Old English origin meaning "fiery or inflamed".
Name Census estimates that about 446,636 living Americans carry the first name Brenda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brenda today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brenda births was 1957 (24,394 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brenda. 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 Brenda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brenda is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,120 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Brenda have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
447K
~ 1 in 767 Americans
Peak year
1957
24,394 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2007 SSA rank
#1,139
Tracked since 1897
Census
Brenda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 521,401 people with the first name Brenda, which placed it at #80 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
#80
National first-name rank
People counted
521K
521,401 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
172.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brenda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brenda is White at 64.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.1%) and Black (14.1%). 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 Brenda 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 Brenda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.9% · 338,308
- Hispanic or Latino17.1% · 89,064
- Black or African American14.1% · 73,569
- Two or more races2.2% · 11,714
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 5,008
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3,738
Gender
Gender distribution for Brenda
Out of the 610,451 babies given the name Brenda since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Brenda as a male name
- Ranked #12,613 in 2007
- 5 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1961 (72 births)
Brenda as a female name
- Ranked #1,139 in 2024
- 212 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (24,338 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brenda appears almost entirely female. Of the 521,400 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Brenda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brenda from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 209,691 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brenda 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 Brenda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brendas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Brenda, while Alaska, Wyoming, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,890 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brenda
The name Brenda is of Old Norse origin, derived from the Old Norse word "brandr," meaning "sword" or "firebrand." It was initially used as a masculine name among the Vikings and Scandinavian cultures during the Middle Ages.
In the early medieval period, the name Brenda was primarily found in areas with significant Norse influence, such as Iceland, Norway, and parts of the British Isles. It gained popularity as a feminine name in England during the 19th century, likely due to its association with the word "brand," which had taken on a symbolic meaning of strength and resilience.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brenda can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, where it appeared as a male name. However, there are no known historical figures from that era specifically named Brenda.
The earliest known individual with the name Brenda was an English woman named Brenda Trotswell, who lived in the late 13th century. She was a landowner and benefactor from Norfolk, England.
In the 16th century, Brenda Harrington was a notable English woman who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. She was born around 1550 and played a significant role in the royal court during the Elizabethan era.
During the Victorian era, Brenda Frederica Bullock was a British author and poet who published several works, including "Poems of Study and Idleness" in 1885. She was born in 1838 and contributed to the burgeoning literary scene of the time.
In the 20th century, Brenda Frazier was a pioneering African American artist and sculptor. Born in 1908, she was known for her intricate woodcarvings and her involvement in the Harlem Renaissance movement.
Another notable figure was Brenda Hale, a British legal scholar and the first woman to serve as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. She was born in 1945 and has been a trailblazer in the field of law and gender equality.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Brenda
People
Brenda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brenda 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
Brenda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brenda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 446,636 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brenda 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 767 US residents.
Is Brenda a common name?
We classify Brenda as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 610,451 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brenda most popular?
The single biggest year for Brenda was 1957, when 24,394 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brenda is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brenda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 521,401 people with the name Brenda, or 172.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #80 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 Brenda 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 Brenda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brenda appears almost entirely female. Of the 521,400 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Brenda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brenda is White at 64.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.1%) and Black (14.1%). 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 Brenda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brenda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.9% (338,308 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 Brenda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brenda a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Brenda 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 Brenda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brenda 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 Brenda 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 Brenda?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.