Brigham
Old English name meaning "high homestead" or "exalted place".
Name Census estimates that about 3,211 living Americans carry the first name Brigham. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brigham today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brigham births was 2011 (137 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brigham. 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
3.2K
~ 1 in 106,744 Americans
Peak year
2011
137 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,186
Tracked since 1916
Census
Brigham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,739 people with the first name Brigham, which placed it at #6,002 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
#6,002
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,739 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brigham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brigham is White at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Brigham 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 Brigham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.3% · 2,445
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 135
- Two or more races3.0% · 82
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 36
- Black or African American1.1% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 12
Popularity
Brigham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brigham from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,144 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Brigham remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brigham 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 Brigham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brighams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Utah, Arizona, Idaho recorded the most babies named Brigham, while Oklahoma, Nevada, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 90 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brigham
The name Brigham is an English surname that has been adopted as a masculine given name. It is derived from the Old English words "brycg" meaning bridge and "ham" meaning home or settlement. This suggests that the name may have originated as a place name referring to a settlement near a bridge.
The earliest recorded use of Brigham as a surname dates back to the 13th century in England. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was William de Brigham, who was mentioned in records from Yorkshire in 1273.
While the name Brigham does not have any known historical references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been borne by several notable individuals throughout history.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Brigham was Brigham Young (1801-1877), an American religious leader and settler. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and led the Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah.
Another notable Brigham was Brigham Roberts (1936-2017), an American sculptor and artist known for his large-scale public artworks. His works can be found in various cities across the United States.
Brigham Hager (1888-1963) was an American football player and coach. He played for the University of Michigan and later coached at Albion College and the University of Detroit.
Brigham Yen (1914-2012) was a Chinese-American engineer and inventor. He is credited with developing the first mass-produced transistor radio and the first successful solar-powered wristwatch.
Brigham Madsen (1925-2015) was an American historian and author. He wrote extensively on the history of the American West, with a particular focus on the Mormon migration and settlement in Utah.
People
Brigham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brigham 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
Brigham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brigham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,211 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brigham 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 106,744 US residents.
Is Brigham a common name?
We classify Brigham as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,288 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brigham most popular?
The single biggest year for Brigham was 2011, when 137 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brigham is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brigham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,739 people with the name Brigham, or 0.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,002 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 Brigham 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 Brigham?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brigham appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,737 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Brigham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brigham is White at 89.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Brigham most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brigham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.3% (2,445 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 Brigham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brigham a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brigham 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 Brigham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brigham 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 Brigham 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 named Brigham?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.