Brinson
An English name of Anglo-Saxon origin meaning "son of brown-haired man".
Name Census estimates that about 342 living Americans carry the first name Brinson. It is a predominantly male name (98.4% of registrations). The average person named Brinson today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brinson births was 2003 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brinson. 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
342
~ 1 in 1,002,206 Americans
Peak year
2003
15 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,386
Tracked since 1919
Gender
Gender distribution for Brinson
Brinson leans heavily male at 98.4% of total registrations, but 6 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Brinson as a male name
- Ranked #8,386 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (15 births)
Brinson as a female name
- Ranked #13,882 in 2002
- 6 female births in 2002
- Peak: 2002 (6 births)
Popularity
Brinson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brinson from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 89 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Brinson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brinson 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 Brinson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brinsons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Brinson
The given name Brinson is an English surname name that originated as a locational name from various places in England, including Brinscombe in Somerset, Brinsworth in Yorkshire, and others. It is derived from the Old English words "bryn" meaning "hill" or "ridge" and "scamb" meaning "small valley" or "hollow."
The earliest recorded use of the name Brinson dates back to the late 12th century, with one of the earliest known bearers being William de Brynscombe, who was mentioned in tax records from Somerset in 1199. Over the centuries, various spellings of the name emerged, including Brinscome, Brynscombe, and Brynson.
While not a particularly common given name, Brinson has been used throughout history, often as a way to honor family lineage or geographic roots. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Thomas Brinson (1558-1622), an English politician and landowner who served as a Member of Parliament for Somerset during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Another notable figure was Brinson Shearon (1812-1893), an American farmer and Confederate soldier from North Carolina who fought in the American Civil War. In more recent times, Brinson Massie (1890-1972) was an American architect and artist known for his contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement in Virginia.
Other individuals bearing the name Brinson include Brinson Whitfield (1848-1923), an American Baptist minister and educator from Georgia, and Brinson Lee (1897-1961), a professional baseball player from Alabama who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1920s.
While not a widely popular name, Brinson has a rich history rooted in English etymology and has been carried by individuals from various walks of life throughout the centuries, from politicians and soldiers to athletes and artists.
People
Brinson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brinson 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
Brinson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brinson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 342 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brinson 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 1,002,206 US residents.
Is Brinson a common name?
We classify Brinson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 372 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brinson most popular?
The single biggest year for Brinson was 2003, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brinson is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Brinson a male name?
Yes, 98.4% of people registered as Brinson 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.
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.