Brittanny
A feminine name of English origin derived from the region of Brittany in France.
Name Census estimates that about 373 living Americans carry the first name Brittanny. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brittanny today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brittanny births was 1990 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brittanny. 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 Brittanny with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
373
~ 1 in 918,912 Americans
Peak year
1990
40 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2011 SSA rank
#12,363
Tracked since 1980
Census
Brittanny in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 407 people with the first name Brittanny, which placed it at #23,894 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
#23,894
National first-name rank
People counted
407
407 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brittanny
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brittanny is White at 55.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Black (17.4%). 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 Brittanny 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 Brittanny at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.8% · 227
- Hispanic or Latino19.2% · 78
- Black or African American17.4% · 71
- Two or more races5.4% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 4
Popularity
Brittanny: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brittanny from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 187 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
Brittanny 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 Brittanny during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brittannys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Brittanny
The name Brittanny has its origins in the ancient Celtic language of Brittonic, spoken by the Britons of Great Britain and Brittany in northwestern France. The name is derived from the word "Brittannia," which was the Latin name for the island of Great Britain. This name likely originated from the Celtic term "Prettani," meaning "painted people" or "tattooed folk."
The name Brittanny first appeared in historical records during the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD. Roman writers such as Tacitus and Ptolemy referred to the island and its inhabitants as "Brittannia" and "Brittanni." This name was later adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, who arrived in Britain in the 5th century AD, and it eventually evolved into the modern English word "Britain."
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Brittanny was Brittanicus, the son of the Roman Emperor Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina. Brittanicus was born in 41 AD and was briefly considered as a potential heir to the Roman throne before being overshadowed by his stepbrother Nero.
In the Middle Ages, the name Brittanny was associated with the Duchy of Brittany, a semi-independent region in northwestern France. One notable figure from this period was Duchess Constance of Brittany (c. 1161-1201), who played a significant role in the Anglo-Norman conflicts and the Third Crusade.
During the Renaissance, the name Brittanny gained popularity among English nobility. One famous bearer of the name was Brittanny Ferres (c. 1480-1548), an English courtier and author who served under King Henry VIII and wrote works on history and theology.
In the 17th century, the name Brittanny was used by the English poet and dramatist Brittanny Howard (1591-1638), who wrote several plays and masques for the court of King James I.
Another notable figure with the name Brittanny was Brittanny Wilkins (1760-1838), a British explorer and navigator who participated in several expeditions to the Pacific Ocean and contributed to the mapping of Australia and New Zealand.
People
Brittanny + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brittanny 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
Brittanny: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brittanny?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brittanny 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 918,912 US residents.
Is Brittanny a common name?
We classify Brittanny as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 389 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brittanny most popular?
The single biggest year for Brittanny was 1990, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brittanny is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brittanny in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 407 people with the name Brittanny, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,894 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 Brittanny 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 Brittanny?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brittanny appears almost entirely female. Of the 407 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Brittanny?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brittanny is White at 55.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Black (17.4%). 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 Brittanny most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brittanny in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.8% (227 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 Brittanny in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brittanny a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brittanny 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 Brittanny still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brittanny 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 Brittanny 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 Brittanny?
You can see how many Americans are named Brittanny on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.