Brie
A French feminine name referring to the soft cheese of the same name.
Name Census estimates that about 3,014 living Americans carry the first name Brie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brie today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brie births was 1980 (110 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brie. 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
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,721 Americans
Peak year
1980
110 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,666
Tracked since 1972
Popularity
Brie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brie from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 774 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Brie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brie 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 Brie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bries live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Brie, while Virginia, Oregon, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brie
The name Brie has its origins in the French language and culture. It is believed to have derived from the Old French word "brie," which referred to a type of soft, creamy cheese that originated in the Brie region of northern France.
In the medieval period, the name Brie was sometimes used as a feminine form of the French name Brice, which itself was derived from the Germanic name Brix or Brix-ida. This name may have been associated with the concept of "bright" or "shining."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brie can be found in the 12th-century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," where a character named Brie is mentioned. However, it is unclear whether this was a given name or a reference to the region of Brie.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Brie. One of the earliest was Brie de Verdun (c. 1181-1227), a French noblewoman and heiress who inherited significant lands and titles in the Champagne region.
In the 16th century, there was a French poet and playwright named Brie Basse (c. 1520-1590), who wrote works in both French and Latin. Her plays were performed at the court of King Henry II of France.
Another notable figure was Brie de Sainte-Marie (1590-1659), a French nun and mystic who founded the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary and wrote several spiritual works.
In the 18th century, Brie Ségur (1718-1801) was a French soldier and military writer who served in the French army during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
More recently, the American actress Brie Larson (born 1989) has brought renewed prominence to the name. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 2015 film "Room."
People
Brie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brie 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
Brie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,014 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brie 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 113,721 US residents.
Is Brie a common name?
We classify Brie as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,127 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brie most popular?
The single biggest year for Brie was 1980, when 110 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brie is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Brie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brie 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.