Branden
Branden was given to 35 boys in 2025, #3,319 among boys’ names; 27,867 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 26,800 Americans named Branden and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 24 and 39.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Branden by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Branden mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Branden is “a male given name transferred from the surname, of rather rare usage, variant of Brandon.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Branden?
#3,319 among boys’ names, 2025
Branden fell from #1,057 in 2015 to #3,319 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 98.1 to 20.5 per million.
1,160 babies in 1992, the peak
Branden peaked in 1992, when 1,160 babies were given it (1,150 boys, #252 among boys’ names). The 35 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #3,319 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 51 | #2,604 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 54 | #2,482 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 46 | #2,795 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 58 | #2,349 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 79 | #1,876 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 75 | #1,957 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 114 | #1,507 | 0.06 |
| 2017 | 116 | #1,460 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 151 | #1,235 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 188 | #1,057 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 205 | #1,004 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 201 | #988 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 250 | #850 | 0.13 |
| 2011 | 336 | #691 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 385 | #630 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 444 | #588 | 0.22 |
| 2008 | 431 | #587 | 0.21 |
| 2007 | 556 | #481 | 0.27 |
| 2006 | 566 | #472 | 0.28 |
| 2005 | 588 | #444 | 0.29 |
| 2004 | 618 | #421 | 0.31 |
| 2003 | 662 | #395 | 0.34 |
| 2002 | 714 | #369 | 0.37 |
| 2001 | 811 | #339 | 0.42 |
| 2000 | 810 | #338 | 0.41 |
| 1999 | 918 | #310 | 0.48 |
| 1998 | 909 | #309 | 0.48 |
| 1997 | 889 | #305 | 0.47 |
| 1996 | 939 | #288 | 0.50 |
| 1995 | 910 | #291 | 0.48 |
| 1994 | 1,038 | #270 | 0.54 |
| 1993 | 1,071 | #270 | 0.55 |
| 1992 | 1,150 | #252 | 0.58 |
| 1991 | 1,011 | #267 | 0.50 |
| 1990 | 849 | #299 | 0.41 |
| 1989 | 970 | #262 | 0.48 |
| 1988 | 894 | #262 | 0.47 |
| 1987 | 913 | #251 | 0.49 |
| 1986 | 858 | #259 | 0.47 |
| 1985 | 810 | #265 | 0.44 |
| 1984 | 735 | #283 | 0.41 |
| 1983 | 640 | #309 | 0.36 |
| 1982 | 597 | #320 | 0.33 |
| 1981 | 600 | #317 | 0.33 |
| 1980 | 398 | #407 | 0.22 |
| 1979 | 293 | #483 | 0.17 |
| 1978 | 246 | #524 | 0.15 |
| 1977 | 252 | #527 | 0.15 |
| 1976 | 177 | #615 | 0.11 |
| 1975 | 205 | #564 | 0.13 |
| 1974 | 165 | #625 | 0.10 |
| 1973 | 141 | #673 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 107 | #771 | 0.07 |
| 1971 | 78 | #920 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 73 | #931 | 0.04 |
| 1969 | 27 | #1,571 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 35 | #1,287 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 23 | #1,610 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 16 | #1,973 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 21 | #1,722 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #4,109 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 10 | #2,686 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #3,340 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,115 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,051 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Branden a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 27,867 Americans recorded as Branden, 1% are girls and 99% boys. In 2025 it went to 35 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Branden: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Branden, and how old are they?
26,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 27,867 Americans ever recorded as Branden. The median Branden alive today is 32 years old; half are between 24 and 39.
The 2020 Census counted 22,284 people named Branden (212 women and girls, 22,072 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 26,781 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 27 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,150 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 13,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 9,710 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,360 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Branden born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6 | #2,243 | 1.0× |
Where Branden is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Branden is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1959 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Branden with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 816,874 babies since 1880, Branden is the second most given (3.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 1,387 babies (2.5%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Branden
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Branden and names like it
- Compare Branden and BrandonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sBranden peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Branden since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Branden: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Branden.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Branden alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.