Brandy
Brandy was given to 53 girls in 2025, #3,072 among girls’ names; 108,861 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 104,000 Americans named Brandy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 39 and 49.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brandy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Brandy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Brandy is “a female given name from English derived from brandy, an alcoholic liquor. Mostly seen in American usage during the 1970s and 1980s.”
/ˈbɹændi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Brandy?
#3,072 among girls’ names, 2025
Brandy fell from #2,687 in 2015 to #3,072 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 37.0 to 33.0 per million.
6,963 babies in 1981, the peak
Brandy peaked in 1981, when 6,963 babies were given it (6,898 girls, #41 among girls’ names). The 58 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are under 1% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 53 | #3,072 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 49 | #3,236 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 57 | #2,941 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 44 | #3,545 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 43 | #3,556 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 47 | #3,293 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 49 | #3,231 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,651 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 69 | #2,550 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 80 | #2,347 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (84)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 66 | #2,687 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 93 | #2,082 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 121 | #1,714 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 132 | #1,633 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 146 | #1,515 | 0.08 |
| 2010 | 177 | #1,329 | 0.10 |
| 2009 | 233 | #1,093 | 0.13 |
| 2008 | 250 | #1,046 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 314 | #887 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 342 | #798 | 0.18 |
| 2005 | 378 | #723 | 0.20 |
| 2004 | 417 | #657 | 0.23 |
| 2003 | 454 | #600 | 0.25 |
| 2002 | 559 | #496 | 0.31 |
| 2001 | 587 | #474 | 0.33 |
| 2000 | 720 | #398 | 0.40 |
| 1999 | 855 | #351 | 0.48 |
| 1998 | 1,058 | #284 | 0.60 |
| 1997 | 1,112 | #261 | 0.64 |
| 1996 | 1,366 | #215 | 0.78 |
| 1995 | 1,508 | #195 | 0.86 |
| 1994 | 1,350 | #214 | 0.76 |
| 1993 | 1,520 | #195 | 0.84 |
| 1992 | 1,814 | #168 | 1.0 |
| 1991 | 2,060 | #148 | 1.1 |
| 1990 | 2,266 | #137 | 1.2 |
| 1989 | 2,454 | #121 | 1.3 |
| 1988 | 2,686 | #107 | 1.5 |
| 1987 | 3,032 | #92 | 1.7 |
| 1986 | 3,295 | #84 | 1.9 |
| 1985 | 3,901 | #70 | 2.3 |
| 1984 | 4,580 | #64 | 2.7 |
| 1983 | 5,194 | #57 | 3.1 |
| 1982 | 6,077 | #50 | 3.6 |
| 1981 | 6,898 | #41 | 4.1 |
| 1980 | 6,410 | #42 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 6,775 | #39 | 4.2 |
| 1978 | 6,699 | #37 | 4.4 |
| 1977 | 5,477 | #51 | 3.6 |
| 1976 | 5,232 | #55 | 3.6 |
| 1975 | 4,944 | #57 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 3,832 | #80 | 2.6 |
| 1973 | 3,715 | #82 | 2.5 |
| 1972 | 2,081 | #140 | 1.4 |
| 1971 | 705 | #353 | 0.42 |
| 1970 | 610 | #385 | 0.35 |
| 1969 | 330 | #541 | 0.20 |
| 1968 | 286 | #565 | 0.17 |
| 1967 | 154 | #805 | 0.09 |
| 1966 | 100 | #1,042 | 0.06 |
| 1965 | 90 | #1,110 | 0.05 |
| 1964 | 98 | #1,105 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 70 | #1,321 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 45 | #1,691 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 32 | #2,073 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 37 | #1,856 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 28 | #2,157 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 23 | #2,386 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 20 | #2,568 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 13 | #3,343 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 27 | #2,066 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 24 | #2,189 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 21 | #2,303 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 24 | #2,076 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 10 | #3,511 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 12 | #3,070 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 17 | #2,422 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 8 | #3,921 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 8 | #4,032 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,028 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,070 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 6 | #4,112 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 8 | #3,528 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 6 | #4,171 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Brandy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 108,861 Americans recorded as Brandy, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 53 girls and 5 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Brandy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brandy, and how old are they?
104,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 108,861 Americans ever recorded as Brandy. The median Brandy alive today is 45 years old; half are between 39 and 49.
The 2020 Census counted 92,449 people named Brandy (90,904 women and girls, 1,545 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 105,215 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 14 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 495 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 45,700 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 49,100 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 961 |
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 Brandy born?
The states with the most babies named Brandy are Texas, California and Ohio, with 25% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 10,468 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| California | 9,382 | #2,837 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 6,050 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Florida | 4,732 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 4,565 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 4,352 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Tennessee | 4,163 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Louisiana | 4,092 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Illinois | 3,988 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 3,803 | not ranked | 0.9× |
Where Brandy is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Brandy is most over-represented in Arkansas: since 1942 it was given 1.9 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 girls’ 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 Brandy 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 235,447 babies since 1880, Brandy is the most given (46% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 86 babies (67%), again the 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 Brandy
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 Brandy and names like it
- Compare Brandy and BrandiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sBrandy peaked in 1981.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brandy since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Brandy: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1981The year the most babies were named Brandy.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Brandy alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.