Brenden
Brenden was given to 43 boys in 2025, #2,890 among boys’ names; 25,757 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 25,100 Americans named Brenden and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 19 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brenden by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Brenden mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Brenden is “a male given name from Irish, of occasional usage, variant of Brendan.”
A variant spelling of Brendan.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Brenden?
#2,890 among boys’ names, 2025
Brenden fell from #897 in 2015 to #2,890 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.13 to 0.03 per 1,000.
1,394 babies in 2000, the peak
Brenden peaked in 2000, when 1,394 boys were given it, #243 among boys’ names. The 43 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #2,890 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 54 | #2,508 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 61 | #2,291 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 78 | #1,967 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 104 | #1,621 | 0.06 |
| 2020 | 119 | #1,452 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 131 | #1,365 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 170 | #1,135 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 205 | #993 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 204 | #999 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (70)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 242 | #897 | 0.13 |
| 2014 | 345 | #706 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 430 | #591 | 0.23 |
| 2012 | 533 | #499 | 0.28 |
| 2011 | 579 | #463 | 0.30 |
| 2010 | 753 | #382 | 0.39 |
| 2009 | 891 | #351 | 0.45 |
| 2008 | 898 | #352 | 0.44 |
| 2007 | 1,004 | #318 | 0.48 |
| 2006 | 1,011 | #316 | 0.49 |
| 2005 | 1,002 | #323 | 0.50 |
| 2004 | 1,145 | #278 | 0.58 |
| 2003 | 1,184 | #266 | 0.60 |
| 2002 | 1,240 | #259 | 0.64 |
| 2001 | 1,221 | #267 | 0.63 |
| 2000 | 1,394 | #243 | 0.71 |
| 1999 | 1,316 | #242 | 0.69 |
| 1998 | 1,267 | #245 | 0.66 |
| 1997 | 1,109 | #255 | 0.59 |
| 1996 | 908 | #293 | 0.48 |
| 1995 | 705 | #349 | 0.37 |
| 1994 | 731 | #337 | 0.38 |
| 1993 | 571 | #405 | 0.29 |
| 1992 | 509 | #435 | 0.25 |
| 1991 | 451 | #466 | 0.22 |
| 1990 | 363 | #516 | 0.18 |
| 1989 | 313 | #548 | 0.16 |
| 1988 | 295 | #532 | 0.15 |
| 1987 | 285 | #538 | 0.15 |
| 1986 | 202 | #631 | 0.11 |
| 1985 | 147 | #728 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 168 | #669 | 0.09 |
| 1983 | 128 | #763 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 119 | #809 | 0.07 |
| 1981 | 104 | #870 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 103 | #880 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 86 | #953 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 59 | #1,150 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 72 | #1,013 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 71 | #991 | 0.05 |
| 1975 | 66 | #1,007 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 45 | #1,248 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 51 | #1,150 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 49 | #1,164 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 42 | #1,293 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 32 | #1,495 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 43 | #1,202 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 64 | #900 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 40 | #1,180 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 50 | #1,027 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 31 | #1,386 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 17 | #1,976 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #2,549 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 11 | #2,523 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 7 | #3,387 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,093 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #3,059 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #3,302 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,043 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 8 | #2,997 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Brenden a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Brenden has been given almost only to boys: 42 girls in 70 years of records.
Girls and boys named Brenden: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brenden, and how old are they?
25,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 25,757 Americans ever recorded as Brenden. The median Brenden alive today is 25 years old; half are between 19 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 22,501 people named Brenden (116 women and girls, 22,385 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 24,853 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 60 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 805 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,770 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 16,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,170 |
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 Brenden born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 5 | #1,316 | 1.0× |
Where Brenden is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Brenden is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1956 it was given 2.0 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 Brenden 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 140,412 babies since 1880, Brenden is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 293 babies (15%), the third most given that year.
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 Brenden
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 Brenden and names like it
- Compare Brenden and BrendanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sBrenden peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brenden since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Brenden.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Brenden alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.