Briton
Of ancient British origin, associated with the Celtic Britons.
Name Census estimates that about 530 living Americans carry the first name Briton. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Briton today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Briton births was 1991 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Briton. 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
530
~ 1 in 646,706 Americans
Peak year
1991
27 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,424
Tracked since 1963
Census
Briton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 582 people with the first name Briton, which placed it at #18,495 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
#18,495
National first-name rank
People counted
582
582 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Briton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briton is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.5%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Briton 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 Briton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 465
- Black or African American9.5% · 55
- Two or more races5.0% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Briton
Out of the 549 babies given the name Briton since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Briton as a male name
- Ranked #12,424 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1991 (27 births)
Briton as a female name
- Ranked #13,245 in 1990
- 5 female births in 1990
- Peak: 1990 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Briton leans strongly male. 502 people counted with this name were male (86.0%), compared with 82 female bearers (14.0%).
Popularity
Briton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Briton from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 145 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
Briton 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 Briton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Briton
The name Briton has its roots in the ancient Celtic and Brittonic languages spoken by the inhabitants of the British Isles. It is derived from the word "Bretton," meaning "a British person" or "someone from Britain." This name has a long and storied history, stretching back to the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD.
In ancient times, the name Briton was used to refer to the Celtic tribes that inhabited the island of Great Britain. These tribes, including the Iceni, Trinovantes, and Brigantes, fiercely resisted the Roman invasion, led by the famous warrior queen Boudicca in 60-61 AD. The name Briton appears in various historical accounts and chronicles from this period, such as those written by the Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Briton can be found in the writings of the Venerable Bede, an English monk and historian from the 7th-8th century. In his work "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," Bede refers to the Britons as the indigenous inhabitants of Britain before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Briton. One of the most famous was Briton of Tours (circa 460-510 AD), a Gallo-Roman abbot and bishop who played a significant role in the spread of Christianity in Gaul (modern-day France). Another was Briton Rivière (1840-1920), a renowned English painter known for his depictions of animals and scenes from British history.
Other notable figures with the name Briton include:
1. Briton Hammon (1798-1891), an American sailor and author who was one of the first published African American writers.
2. Briton Corliss (1832-1888), an American inventor and mechanical engineer best known for his pioneering work on steam engines.
3. Briton Busch (1877-1962), an American businessman and co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, one of the largest brewing companies in the world.
4. Briton Hadden (1898-1929), an American writer and co-founder of Time magazine, who played a key role in shaping the magazine's distinctive style and format.
5. Briton Trump (1915-2000), an American real estate developer and the father of former US President Donald Trump.
While the name Briton has Celtic and Brittonic origins, it has been adopted and used by people from various cultural backgrounds throughout history, reflecting the rich diversity and interconnectedness of human societies.
People
Briton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Briton 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
Briton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Briton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 530 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Briton 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 646,706 US residents.
Is Briton a common name?
We classify Briton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 549 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Briton most popular?
The single biggest year for Briton was 1991, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Briton is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Briton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 582 people with the name Briton, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,495 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 Briton 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 Briton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Briton leans strongly male. 502 people counted with this name were male (86.0%), compared with 82 female bearers (14.0%). 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 Briton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briton is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.5%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Briton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Briton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (465 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 Briton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Briton a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Briton 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 Briton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Briton 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 Briton 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 the name Briton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.