Bray
Bray was given to 46 boys in 2025, #2,769 among boys’ names; 808 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bray by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Bray?
#2,769 among boys’ names, 2025
Bray rose from #3,994 in 2015 to #2,769 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 13.6 to 26.9 per million.
51 babies in 2024, the peak
Bray peaked in 2024, when 51 babies were given it (46 boys, #2,796 among boys’ names). The 46 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 46 | #2,769 | 26.9 |
| 2024 | 46 | #2,796 | 26.7 |
| 2023 | 35 | #3,356 | 20.5 |
| 2022 | 32 | #3,545 | 18.3 |
| 2021 | 35 | #3,309 | 20.0 |
| 2020 | 34 | #3,277 | 19.7 |
| 2019 | 30 | #3,644 | 16.7 |
| 2018 | 21 | #4,617 | 11.6 |
| 2017 | 20 | #4,765 | 10.8 |
| 2016 | 21 | #4,642 | 11.1 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 26 | #3,994 | 13.6 |
| 2014 | 40 | #2,893 | 20.8 |
| 2013 | 26 | #3,874 | 13.7 |
| 2012 | 21 | #4,555 | 11.1 |
| 2011 | 18 | #5,000 | 9.5 |
| 2010 | 11 | #7,131 | 5.7 |
| 2009 | 6 | #11,176 | 3.0 |
| 2008 | 18 | #5,082 | 8.8 |
| 2007 | 14 | #5,950 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,510 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 12 | #6,267 | 6.0 |
| 2004 | 13 | #5,846 | 6.5 |
| 2003 | 14 | #5,295 | 7.1 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,111 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 9 | #6,989 | 4.6 |
| 2000 | 10 | #6,367 | 5.1 |
| 1999 | 11 | #5,697 | 5.7 |
| 1998 | 16 | #4,220 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,471 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 9 | #6,040 | 4.8 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,539 | 5.3 |
| 1994 | 12 | #4,824 | 6.2 |
| 1993 | 13 | #4,467 | 6.6 |
| 1992 | 9 | #5,699 | 4.5 |
| 1991 | 9 | #5,561 | 4.5 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,046 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 7 | #5,819 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 5 | #6,839 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 6 | #5,870 | 3.2 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,602 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 7 | #4,983 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,387 | 2.8 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,488 | 4.5 |
| 1971 | 5 | #4,992 | 2.8 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,305 | 4.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bray a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 808 Americans recorded as Bray, 8% are girls and 92% boys. In 2025 it went to 46 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 Bray: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bray, and how old are they?
An estimated 794 Americans named Bray and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 5 and 23. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 944 people named Bray (176 women and girls, 768 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 557 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Bray rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 183,368 babies since 1880, Bray is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 46 of their 172 babies (27%), 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 Bray
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 Bray and names like it
- Compare Bray and BarryBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBray peaked in 2024.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bray since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Bray.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bray alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.