Brittania
The feminine name of Latin origin meaning "from Great Britain".
Name Census estimates that about 383 living Americans carry the first name Brittania. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brittania today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brittania births was 1980 (60 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brittania. 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
383
~ 1 in 894,920 Americans
Peak year
1980
60 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2013 SSA rank
#14,945
Tracked since 1979
Census
Brittania in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 374 people with the first name Brittania, which placed it at #25,370 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
#25,370
National first-name rank
People counted
374
374 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brittania
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brittania is White at 48.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Hispanic (18.7%). 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 Brittania 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 Brittania at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.4% · 181
- Black or African American27.3% · 102
- Hispanic or Latino18.7% · 70
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 8
- Two or more races2.1% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 5
Popularity
Brittania: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brittania from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 216 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brittania 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 Brittania during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brittanias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Brittania, while Illinois, Georgia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brittania
The name Brittania is derived from the ancient Latin word "Britannia", which was the Roman name for the island of Great Britain. It was first coined by the Romans in the 1st century AD to refer to the territories they had conquered in what is now England, Wales, and parts of Scotland.
Britannia was personified as a goddess and appeared on Roman coins and sculptures, often depicted as a warrior woman wearing a Corinthian helmet and carrying a trident. The name likely originated from the term "Prettanike" used by Greek writers to describe the islands off the north-western coast of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Brittania can be found in the work of the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote about the Roman conquest of Britain in his book "Agricola" around 98 AD. The name also appears in various other ancient Roman texts and inscriptions from the time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Brittania, often with variations in spelling. One of the earliest was Brittania Bathhurst (1768-1804), an English aristocrat and writer known for her support of the abolition of slavery.
Another notable figure was Brittania Hollis (1718-1784), an English painter and printmaker who specialized in portraiture and was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
In the 19th century, Brittania Nicholson (1849-1924) was an English painter and illustrator known for her watercolor landscapes and portraits. She was a member of the Newlyn School of artists and exhibited her works at the Royal Academy.
A more recent example is Brittania Bly (1868-1935), an American journalist and adventurer who gained fame for her record-breaking journey around the world in 72 days, inspired by the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's novel "Around the World in Eighty Days".
Another notable figure was Brittania Wortley (1924-2014), a British actress and dancer who appeared in several films and television shows during the mid-20th century, including a role in the classic musical "Oliver!".
People
Brittania + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brittania 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
Brittania: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brittania?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 383 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brittania 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 894,920 US residents.
Is Brittania a common name?
We classify Brittania as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 402 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brittania most popular?
The single biggest year for Brittania was 1980, when 60 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brittania is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brittania in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 374 people with the name Brittania, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,370 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 Brittania 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 Brittania?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brittania appears almost entirely female. Of the 381 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Brittania?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brittania is White at 48.4%. The next largest groups are Black (27.3%) and Hispanic (18.7%). 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 Brittania most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brittania in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.4% (181 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 Brittania in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brittania a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brittania 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 Brittania still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brittania 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 Brittania 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 common is the name Brittania?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.