Britanie
Feminine given name of British origin meaning "descendent from Britain".
Name Census estimates that about 406 living Americans carry the first name Britanie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Britanie today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Britanie births was 1989 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Britanie. 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 Britanie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
406
~ 1 in 844,223 Americans
Peak year
1989
39 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2002 SSA rank
#9,605
Tracked since 1979
Census
Britanie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 404 people with the first name Britanie, which placed it at #24,004 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
#24,004
National first-name rank
People counted
404
404 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Britanie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Britanie is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.1%) and Hispanic (12.9%). 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 Britanie 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 Britanie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.3% · 264
- Black or African American15.1% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino12.9% · 52
- Two or more races4.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Britanie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Britanie from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 230 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Britanie 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 Britanie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Britanies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Britanie, while Ohio, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Britanie
The name Britanie has its origins in the Celtic language of the ancient Britons, the people who inhabited the island of Great Britain prior to the Roman conquest. It is derived from the Proto-Celtic word "briton," which means "people of Britain." The name was first recorded in its modern spelling in the 5th century CE, after the Romans had left Britain and the Anglo-Saxons had begun to settle in the region.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Britanie can be found in the "Historia Brittonum," a 9th century historical account of the Britons written by the scholar Nennius. This text mentions several individuals with the name, including a 5th century British king named Britanie ap Cunedda.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Britanie remained popular among the Celtic populations of Britain, particularly in Wales and Cornwall. It was often used as a way to assert one's British identity and heritage in the face of Anglo-Saxon and later Norman-French cultural domination.
A notable bearer of the name Britanie in the medieval period was Britanie ferch Rhys ap Gruffydd (c. 1180-1225), a Welsh princess and the daughter of Rhys ap Gruffydd, the ruler of the Kingdom of Deheubarth in south Wales.
During the Renaissance, the name Britanie saw a resurgence in popularity, particularly among English families who wished to celebrate their British ancestry. One famous bearer of the name from this period was Britanie Fitzwilliam (1516-1576), an English courtier and member of the Privy Council under Queen Elizabeth I.
As the British Empire expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Britanie became associated with a sense of national pride and patriotism. One notable figure from this era was Britanie Wilkins (1690-1772), an English sea captain who served in the Royal Navy and played a role in the capture of the Spanish treasure ship Nuestra Señora de Covadonga in 1743.
In the 19th century, the name Britanie continued to be used in Britain and its colonies, often as a way to honor the nation's history and heritage. One prominent bearer of the name from this period was Britanie Brontë (1816-1855), the English novelist and poet who wrote the classic works "Jane Eyre" and "Villette."
People
Britanie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Britanie 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
Britanie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Britanie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 406 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Britanie 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 844,223 US residents.
Is Britanie a common name?
We classify Britanie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 423 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Britanie most popular?
The single biggest year for Britanie was 1989, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Britanie is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Britanie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 404 people with the name Britanie, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,004 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 Britanie 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 Britanie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Britanie appears almost entirely female. Of the 403 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Britanie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Britanie is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.1%) and Hispanic (12.9%). 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 Britanie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Britanie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.3% (264 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 Britanie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Britanie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Britanie 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 Britanie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Britanie 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 Britanie 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 Britanie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.