Brodey
Meaning "broad clearing", an Old English masculine name.
Name Census estimates that about 1,162 living Americans carry the first name Brodey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brodey today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brodey births was 2008 (113 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brodey. 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 Brodey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 294,969 Americans
Peak year
2008
113 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,388
Tracked since 1985
Census
Brodey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,056 people with the first name Brodey, which placed it at #11,957 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
#11,957
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,056 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brodey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brodey is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Brodey 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 Brodey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 917
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 57
- Two or more races5.2% · 55
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 8
- Black or African American0.7% · 7
Popularity
Brodey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brodey from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 589 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brodey 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 Brodey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brodeys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Brodey, while Missouri, Florida, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brodey
The name Brodey is believed to have its origins in the Gaelic language, specifically in the Scottish and Irish cultural traditions. It is thought to be a variant spelling of the name Brodie, which itself is derived from the Old English words "brod" or "brord," meaning "broad" or "wide."
This connection suggests that the name Brodey may have initially been used as a descriptive surname referring to someone with a broad or sturdy build. The earliest known records of the name date back to the 13th century in Scotland, where it was used as a family name.
While there are no direct references to the name Brodey in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the name Brodie does appear in several historical records from Scotland. One notable example is the Brodie Castle, a 16th-century tower house located in Moray, Scotland, which was the ancestral home of the Brodie clan.
Some of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Brodey include:
1. Brodey MacKinnon (c. 1550 - 1620), a Scottish clan chief and landowner from the Isle of Skye.
2. Brodey Macleod (c. 1580 - 1650), a Scottish warrior and member of the Macleod clan.
3. Brodey Campbell (c. 1620 - 1690), a Scottish minister and scholar.
4. Brodey Macintosh (c. 1670 - 1745), a Scottish Jacobite soldier who fought in the Battle of Culloden.
5. Brodey Macdonald (c. 1720 - 1790), a Scottish poet and author known for his works in Gaelic.
Throughout history, the name Brodey has been associated with individuals from various walks of life, including clan leaders, warriors, religious figures, and literary figures. While not as common as some other Scottish names, it has maintained a presence in the cultural heritage of Scotland and Ireland.
People
Brodey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brodey 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
Brodey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brodey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,162 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brodey 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 294,969 US residents.
Is Brodey a common name?
We classify Brodey as "Rare". It ranks above 91% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,176 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brodey most popular?
The single biggest year for Brodey was 2008, when 113 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brodey is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brodey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,056 people with the name Brodey, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,957 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 Brodey 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 Brodey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brodey appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,056 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Brodey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brodey is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Brodey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brodey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (917 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 Brodey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brodey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brodey 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 Brodey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brodey 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 Brodey 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 share the name Brodey?
Find out how many people have the name Brodey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.