Brennen
Brennen is a German name meaning "to burn brightly or fiercely".
Name Census estimates that about 9,028 living Americans carry the first name Brennen. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Brennen today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brennen births was 2009 (464 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brennen. 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 Brennen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brennen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 178 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
9.0K
~ 1 in 37,966 Americans
Peak year
2009
464 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,606
Tracked since 1962
Census
Brennen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,146 people with the first name Brennen, which placed it at #2,840 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
#2,840
National first-name rank
People counted
8.1K
8,146 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brennen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brennen is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Brennen 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 Brennen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.5% · 6,477
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 528
- Two or more races5.8% · 475
- Black or African American5.7% · 468
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 108
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 90
Gender
Gender distribution for Brennen
Brennen leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 178 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Brennen as a male name
- Ranked #3,606 in 2024
- 31 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (455 births)
Brennen as a female name
- Ranked #17,005 in 2014
- 5 female births in 2014
- Peak: 2007 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brennen leans strongly male. 7,936 people counted with this name were male (97.4%), compared with 209 female bearers (2.6%).
Popularity
Brennen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brennen from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,744 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brennen 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 Brennen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brennens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. California, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Brennen, while Nevada, Connecticut, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 167 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brennen
The name Brennen has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically the Old High German word "brinnan," which means "to burn" or "to shine." This word ultimately traces its roots back to the Proto-Germanic "brenn-an-," meaning the same. The name likely emerged during the Middle Ages in regions where Germanic languages were spoken.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brennen can be found in the Codex Sangallensis, a 9th-century manuscript from the Abbey of St. Gall in modern-day Switzerland. The document mentions a monk named Brennen, who was a scribe and calligrapher. This suggests that the name was already in use by that time in the Germanic regions of Europe.
In the 11th century, a notable figure named Brennen appears in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical narratives and myths. Brennen Thorvaldsson was a Viking warrior and explorer who is said to have accompanied Leif Erikson on his voyages to Vinland (present-day Newfoundland, Canada) around the year 1000 AD.
During the Middle Ages, the name Brennen was also found in various regions of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. One notable bearer of the name was Brennen von Trier, a 13th-century Benedictine monk and theologian from the city of Trier, who wrote extensively on religious topics.
In the 16th century, a Dutch explorer and navigator named Brennen van Doesburgh sailed with the Dutch East India Company and is credited with mapping parts of the Indonesian archipelago and the coasts of Australia. His travels and contributions to cartography were significant during the Age of Exploration.
Another historically notable figure with the name Brennen was Brennen O'Rourke, an Irish chieftain and leader of the O'Rourke clan in the 15th century. He played a prominent role in the conflicts between Irish clans and the English Crown during the Tudor conquest of Ireland.
While the name Brennen has its roots in the Germanic languages, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions over the centuries, reflecting its historical significance and enduring appeal.
People
Brennen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brennen 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
Brennen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brennen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,028 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brennen 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 37,966 US residents.
Is Brennen a common name?
We classify Brennen as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,196 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brennen most popular?
The single biggest year for Brennen was 2009, when 464 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brennen is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brennen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,146 people with the name Brennen, or 2.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,840 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 Brennen 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 Brennen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brennen leans strongly male. 7,936 people counted with this name were male (97.4%), compared with 209 female bearers (2.6%). 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 Brennen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brennen is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Brennen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brennen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.5% (6,477 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 Brennen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brennen a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Brennen 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 Brennen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brennen 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 Brennen 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 called Brennen?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.