Britanny
Of English origin, meaning "from Brittany" the peninsula in France.
Name Census estimates that about 793 living Americans carry the first name Britanny. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Britanny today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Britanny births was 1990 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Britanny. 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 Britanny with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
793
~ 1 in 432,225 Americans
Peak year
1990
51 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,657
Tracked since 1982
Census
Britanny in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 750 people with the first name Britanny, which placed it at #15,361 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
#15,361
National first-name rank
People counted
750
750 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Britanny
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Britanny is Hispanic at 48.0%. The next largest groups are White (32.4%) and Black (15.6%). 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 Britanny 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 Britanny at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino48.0% · 360
- White32.4% · 243
- Black or African American15.6% · 117
- Two or more races2.0% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
Popularity
Britanny: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Britanny from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 240 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
Britanny 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 Britanny during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Britannys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Britanny, while North Carolina, Arizona, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Britanny
The name Britanny has its origins tracing back to the Breton language, spoken in the region of Brittany in northwestern France. The name is derived from the Old Breton words "brizh" meaning "high" or "elevated" and "tan" meaning "fire" or "brilliance." Together, these words formed the name Briztan or Briztant, which eventually evolved into the modern spelling of Britanny.
During the Middle Ages, the name Britanny was associated with the Duchy of Brittany, a semi-independent feudal state that existed from the 9th to the 16th century. The name gained prominence as it was used by several Dukes and Duchesses of Brittany, including Duke Nominoe (819-851), who is considered the founder of the Breton state.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Britanny can be found in the 12th-century Latin chronicle "Historia Regum Britanniae" by Geoffrey of Monmouth. In this work, the author refers to the island of Britain as "Britannia," which may have influenced the evolution of the name Britanny.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Britanny. One famous bearer was Brittany, Duchess of Brittany (1199-1221), who ruled the Duchy of Brittany from 1213 until her death. Another was Britanny (or Britanny de Lamballe), a French princess and confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette, who was tragically killed during the French Revolution in 1792.
In the literary world, Britanny is also the name of a character in William Shakespeare's play "Cymbeline," where she is portrayed as the daughter of the titular king. Additionally, Britanny Spears, an American singer and actress born in 1981, has helped popularize the name in modern times.
Over the centuries, the name Britanny has been adapted and anglicized in various ways, leading to alternative spellings such as Brittany, Britney, and Brittney. However, the roots of the name can be traced back to the ancient Breton culture and its connection to the historical Duchy of Brittany.
People
Britanny + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Britanny 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
Britanny: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Britanny?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 793 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Britanny 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 432,225 US residents.
Is Britanny a common name?
We classify Britanny as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 817 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Britanny most popular?
The single biggest year for Britanny was 1990, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Britanny is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Britanny in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 750 people with the name Britanny, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,361 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 Britanny 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 Britanny?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Britanny appears almost entirely female. Of the 753 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Britanny?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Britanny is Hispanic at 48.0%. The next largest groups are White (32.4%) and Black (15.6%). 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 Britanny most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Britanny in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (360 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 Britanny in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Britanny a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Britanny 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 Britanny still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Britanny 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 Britanny 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 Americans are named Britanny?
You can see how many people have the name Britanny on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.