Brian
A masculine name of Celtic origin meaning "noble" or "high".
Name Census estimates that about 1,062,624 living Americans carry the first name Brian. It sits at #301 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brian today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brian births was 1972 (36,480 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brian. 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 Brian with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brian is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,563 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Brian have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
1.1M
~ 1 in 323 Americans
Peak year
1972
36,480 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#301
Tracked since 1909
Census
Brian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,011,015 people with the first name Brian, which placed it at #25 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
#25
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0M
1,011,015 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
334.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brian is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Brian 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 Brian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.1% · 810,241
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 80,937
- Black or African American6.1% · 61,348
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 28,600
- Two or more races2.5% · 24,952
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4,937
Gender
Gender distribution for Brian
Out of the 1,177,325 babies given the name Brian since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Brian as a male name
- Ranked #301 in 2024
- 1,111 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (36,309 births)
Brian as a female name
- Ranked #16,906 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 1977 (181 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brian appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,011,020 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Brian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brian from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 324,277 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brian 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 Brian during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brians live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Brian, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23,011 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brian
The name Brian has its origins in the Celtic language of ancient Britain and Ireland. It is derived from the Old Celtic words "bri" meaning hill or high place, and "an" meaning small or little. In its earliest form, the name was likely spelled "Brianan" or a similar variation.
The name Brian gained popularity during the medieval period, particularly in Ireland where it was borne by several notable historical figures. One of the earliest recorded instances is Brian Boru, an Irish king who ruled in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. He is renowned for driving the Viking invaders out of Ireland and establishing a unified Irish kingdom.
Another notable Brian from Irish history is Brian O'Nolan, a 20th century novelist and satirist who wrote under the pen name Flann O'Brien. He was born in 1911 and passed away in 1966. His works, such as "At Swim-Two-Birds" and "The Third Policeman," are considered classics of Irish literature.
The name Brian also has a strong presence in Welsh history, with one of the earliest recorded examples being Brian the Pious, a 9th-century king of Gwynedd. He is remembered for his efforts in promoting Christianity and establishing monasteries throughout his kingdom.
In the realm of religion, the name Brian appears in various texts and manuscripts, although its use was not as widespread as other biblical names. One notable instance is Saint Brian, a 7th-century Irish monk and missionary who is venerated in the Catholic Church.
Beyond Ireland and Wales, the name Brian has been adopted in various cultures and languages throughout history. In ancient Rome, there was a general named Flavius Heraclius Bryanus who led the Byzantine army in the 7th century. In literature, one of the most famous Brians is the character Brian of Nazareth from the Monty Python film "Life of Brian," released in 1979.
Other notable figures named Brian include Brian Jones, the founding member and guitarist of the Rolling Stones; Brian Epstein, the legendary manager of the Beatles; and Brian Friel, the celebrated Irish dramatist known for plays like "Dancing at Lughnasa" and "Translations," who lived from 1929 to 2015.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Brian
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Brian Aherne
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Brian Anderson
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Brian Baird
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Brian Boucher
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Brian Cox
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Brian Dannelly
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Brian Dawkins
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Brian Dennehy
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Brian Depalma
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Brian Fuentes
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Brian Gibson
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Brian Giles
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Brian Gionta
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Brian Grant
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Brian Green
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Brian Helgeland
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Brian Henson
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Brian Higgins
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Brian Hutton
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Brian Jones
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Brian Jordan
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Brian Keith
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Brian Koppelman
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Brian Lawrence
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Brian Leetch
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Brian Levant
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Brian Littrell
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Brian Mccann
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Brian Ohalloran
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Brian Robbins
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Brian Roberts
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Brian Schneider
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Brian Urlacher
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Brian Vickers
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Brian Westbrook
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Brian Wilson
People
Brian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brian 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
Brian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,062,624 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brian 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 323 US residents.
Is Brian a common name?
We classify Brian as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,177,325 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brian most popular?
The single biggest year for Brian was 1972, when 36,480 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brian is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,011,015 people with the name Brian, or 334.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25 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 Brian 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 Brian?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brian appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,011,020 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Brian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brian is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Brian most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (810,241 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 Brian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brian a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Brian 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 Brian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brian 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 Brian 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 Brian?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.