Brendalynn
A feminine blend of Brenda and Lynn with potential meanings of "sword" or "pretty".
Name Census estimates that about 64 living Americans carry the first name Brendalynn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brendalynn today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brendalynn births was 2014 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brendalynn. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Brendalynn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
64
~ 1 in 5,355,537 Americans
Peak year
2014
11 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2021 SSA rank
#15,658
Tracked since 2011
Popularity
Brendalynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brendalynn from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 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
Brendalynn 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 Brendalynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brendalynn
The name Brendalynn is a relatively modern combination of two separate names – Brenda and Lynn. The name Brenda has its origins in the Old Norse name Brandr, which means "sword" or "flame." It gained popularity in the English-speaking world during the Middle Ages and was used as a feminine name.
Lynn, on the other hand, is derived from the Welsh name Llin, which means "lake" or "pool." It has been a popular name in various cultures and languages, including English, German, and Scandinavian. The combination of these two names, Brendalynn, is a relatively recent creation, likely emerging in the late 20th century.
While there are no known historical figures specifically named Brendalynn, there have been notable individuals with the separate names Brenda and Lynn. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brenda can be found in the medieval English text "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, where a character named Brenda is mentioned.
In more recent history, Brenda Lee (born 1944) is a renowned American singer and songwriter, known for her hit songs like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "I'm Sorry." Another notable Brenda is Brenda Dickson (1917-2011), an American activist and co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a prominent organization during the Civil Rights Movement.
As for Lynn, one of the most famous historical figures with this name is Lynn Margulis (1938-2011), an American evolutionary biologist and academic known for her work on the endosymbiotic theory, which describes the origin of eukaryotic cells. Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983) was a British-American actress who had a prolific career on stage and won numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
Another notable Lynn is Lynn Hill (born 1961), an American rock climber who was the first person to achieve a free ascent of the difficult El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Lynn Whitfield (born 1953) is an American actress and producer who won an Emmy Award for her performance in the television movie "The Josephine Baker Story."
While the combination of Brenda and Lynn into Brendalynn is a modern invention, it carries the historical significance and cultural richness of its component names, which have been present in various cultures and time periods throughout history.
People
Brendalynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brendalynn 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
Brendalynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brendalynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 64 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brendalynn 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 5,355,537 US residents.
Is Brendalynn a common name?
We classify Brendalynn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 64 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brendalynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Brendalynn was 2014, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brendalynn is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Brendalynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brendalynn 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.
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.