Brenan
Brenan was last recorded in 2021, when 7 babies were given it; 833 Americans have been recorded with it between 1972 and 2021 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brenan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Brenan?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,864, in 2021; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
42 babies in 2009, the peak
Brenan peaked in 2009, when 42 boys were given it, #2,849 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | #9,864 | 4.0 |
| 2020 | 5 | #12,293 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 8 | #9,014 | 4.5 |
| 2018 | 9 | #8,252 | 5.0 |
| 2017 | 6 | #10,967 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 7 | #9,811 | 3.7 |
| 2015 | 12 | #6,723 | 6.3 |
| 2014 | 10 | #7,620 | 5.2 |
| 2013 | 12 | #6,651 | 6.3 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,123 | 5.8 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 34 | #3,244 | 17.9 |
| 2010 | 24 | #4,117 | 12.5 |
| 2009 | 42 | #2,849 | 21.2 |
| 2008 | 25 | #4,048 | 12.3 |
| 2007 | 30 | #3,519 | 14.5 |
| 2006 | 32 | #3,311 | 15.6 |
| 2005 | 21 | #4,207 | 10.5 |
| 2004 | 19 | #4,438 | 9.6 |
| 2003 | 32 | #2,995 | 16.2 |
| 2002 | 28 | #3,190 | 14.4 |
| 2001 | 30 | #2,991 | 15.4 |
| 2000 | 37 | #2,528 | 18.8 |
| 1999 | 31 | #2,725 | 16.1 |
| 1998 | 28 | #2,860 | 14.6 |
| 1997 | 35 | #2,349 | 18.6 |
| 1996 | 36 | #2,253 | 19.0 |
| 1995 | 22 | #3,103 | 11.6 |
| 1994 | 26 | #2,771 | 13.5 |
| 1993 | 23 | #2,946 | 11.7 |
| 1992 | 19 | #3,342 | 9.5 |
| 1991 | 20 | #3,114 | 9.9 |
| 1990 | 17 | #3,476 | 8.3 |
| 1989 | 13 | #4,036 | 6.5 |
| 1988 | 18 | #2,974 | 9.4 |
| 1987 | 17 | #2,956 | 9.1 |
| 1986 | 15 | #3,145 | 8.1 |
| 1985 | 7 | #5,203 | 3.8 |
| 1984 | 12 | #3,485 | 6.6 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,555 | 4.5 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,082 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 9 | #4,109 | 5.2 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,133 | 3.7 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,641 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 5 | #5,697 | 3.2 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,566 | 3.2 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,497 | 3.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Brenan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Brenan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Brenan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brenan, and how old are they?
An estimated 810 Americans named Brenan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 18 and 32. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 911 people named Brenan (67 women and girls, 844 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 806 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
How common is the spelling Brenan?
Brenan is a less common spelling of Brennan: SSA has recorded 833 Brenan and 35,487 Brennan since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 54,553 babies since 1880, Brenan is the fifth most given (1.5% of them). In 2025 none of their 318 babies recorded by SSA was a Brenan (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Brenan
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 Brenan and names like it
- Compare Brenan and BrennanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sBrenan peaked in 2009.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brenan since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Brenan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Brenan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.