Brihana
A feminine name derived from Sanskrit meaning "large" or "great".
Name Census estimates that about 259 living Americans carry the first name Brihana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brihana today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brihana births was 2009 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brihana. 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
259
~ 1 in 1,323,376 Americans
Peak year
2009
33 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,725
Tracked since 1993
Census
Brihana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 206 people with the first name Brihana, which placed it at #37,688 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
#37,688
National first-name rank
People counted
206
206 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brihana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brihana is Hispanic at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.6%) and White (10.2%). 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 Brihana 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 Brihana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.4% · 147
- Black or African American12.6% · 26
- White10.2% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 4
- Two or more races1.9% · 4
Popularity
Brihana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brihana from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 146 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
Brihana 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 Brihana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brihanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Brihana, while New York, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brihana
The name Brihana has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that originated in the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "brihant," which means "great" or "vast." Brihana is a feminine form of the name and is believed to have been in use in India since ancient times.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brihana can be found in the Mahabharata, a ancient Hindu epic composed around the 8th century BCE. In this epic, Brihana is mentioned as the name of a celestial nymph or apsara. This suggests that the name was associated with beauty and grace in Hindu mythology.
During the medieval period, the name Brihana was occasionally used by royalty and nobility in parts of India. It is recorded that a princess named Brihana lived in the 11th century CE during the reign of the Chola dynasty in southern India. She was renowned for her intellect and patronage of the arts.
In the 16th century, a notable figure named Brihana Kavi lived in the Vijayanagar Empire in present-day Karnataka. She was a accomplished poet and scholar who wrote extensively in Sanskrit and Kannada languages. Her works were considered significant contributions to Indian literature of that era.
Another historical figure named Brihana was a prominent musician and dancer who lived in the 18th century during the reign of the Maratha Empire in western India. She was a celebrated performer of classical Indian dance forms and is credited with preserving and popularizing several dance traditions.
In more recent times, Brihana has been a relatively uncommon name, but there have been a few notable individuals who have carried this name. One example is Brihana Nandakumar, an Indian physicist and academic who made significant contributions to the field of nuclear physics in the 20th century (1911-1992).
Overall, the name Brihana has a rich historical legacy in Indian culture, often associated with beauty, intellect, and artistic pursuits. Its Sanskrit roots and occasional use by notable figures throughout history have contributed to its enduring significance.
People
Brihana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brihana 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
Brihana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brihana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 259 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brihana 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 1,323,376 US residents.
Is Brihana a common name?
We classify Brihana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 261 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brihana most popular?
The single biggest year for Brihana was 2009, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brihana is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brihana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 206 people with the name Brihana, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,688 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 Brihana 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 Brihana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brihana leans strongly female. 201 people counted with this name were female (97.6%), compared with 5 male bearers (2.4%). 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 Brihana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brihana is Hispanic at 71.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.6%) and White (10.2%). 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 Brihana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Brihana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (147 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 Brihana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brihana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brihana 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.
Is Brihana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brihana 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 Brihana 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 have Brihana as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Brihana, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.