Brenna
Brenna was given to 108 girls in 2025, #1,846 among girls’ names; 29,371 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 28,700 Americans named Brenna and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brenna by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Brenna mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Brenna is “a female given name.”
An American coinage used since the 1970s, possibly based on the male given name Brennan or Brendan.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Brenna?
#1,846 among girls’ names, 2025
Brenna fell from #792 in 2015 to #1,846 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.20 to 0.07 per 1,000.
1,212 babies in 1995, the peak
Brenna peaked in 1995, when 1,212 girls were given it, #235 among girls’ names. The 108 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 108 | #1,846 | 0.07 |
| 2024 | 93 | #2,071 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 92 | #2,094 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 118 | #1,757 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 154 | #1,411 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 149 | #1,449 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 175 | #1,309 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 232 | #1,085 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 260 | #996 | 0.15 |
| 2016 | 304 | #911 | 0.17 |
Every recorded year (80)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 356 | #792 | 0.20 |
| 2014 | 362 | #774 | 0.20 |
| 2013 | 417 | #680 | 0.24 |
| 2012 | 458 | #622 | 0.26 |
| 2011 | 576 | #510 | 0.33 |
| 2010 | 644 | #469 | 0.36 |
| 2009 | 709 | #443 | 0.39 |
| 2008 | 766 | #422 | 0.41 |
| 2007 | 886 | #369 | 0.46 |
| 2006 | 845 | #383 | 0.44 |
| 2005 | 885 | #355 | 0.48 |
| 2004 | 966 | #330 | 0.53 |
| 2003 | 1,036 | #296 | 0.57 |
| 2002 | 924 | #328 | 0.51 |
| 2001 | 960 | #322 | 0.53 |
| 2000 | 1,023 | #310 | 0.56 |
| 1999 | 1,027 | #300 | 0.58 |
| 1998 | 1,047 | #287 | 0.59 |
| 1997 | 1,035 | #282 | 0.59 |
| 1996 | 1,149 | #248 | 0.66 |
| 1995 | 1,212 | #235 | 0.69 |
| 1994 | 1,002 | #279 | 0.56 |
| 1993 | 739 | #345 | 0.41 |
| 1992 | 725 | #354 | 0.39 |
| 1991 | 661 | #389 | 0.35 |
| 1990 | 605 | #419 | 0.32 |
| 1989 | 554 | #440 | 0.30 |
| 1988 | 527 | #432 | 0.30 |
| 1987 | 489 | #452 | 0.28 |
| 1986 | 440 | #487 | 0.26 |
| 1985 | 453 | #467 | 0.26 |
| 1984 | 411 | #490 | 0.24 |
| 1983 | 366 | #519 | 0.22 |
| 1982 | 316 | #580 | 0.19 |
| 1981 | 331 | #560 | 0.20 |
| 1980 | 300 | #613 | 0.18 |
| 1979 | 211 | #762 | 0.13 |
| 1978 | 212 | #736 | 0.14 |
| 1977 | 183 | #820 | 0.12 |
| 1976 | 185 | #774 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 188 | #757 | 0.13 |
| 1974 | 167 | #807 | 0.11 |
| 1973 | 134 | #918 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 112 | #1,038 | 0.07 |
| 1971 | 135 | #948 | 0.08 |
| 1970 | 120 | #1,027 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 99 | #1,109 | 0.06 |
| 1968 | 95 | #1,091 | 0.06 |
| 1967 | 59 | #1,441 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 52 | #1,551 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 60 | #1,423 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 51 | #1,595 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 48 | #1,649 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 35 | #1,946 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 24 | #2,476 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 21 | #2,652 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 21 | #2,525 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 18 | #2,761 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 16 | #2,933 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 24 | #2,255 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 37 | #1,693 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 41 | #1,585 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 27 | #1,975 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 28 | #1,896 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 24 | #2,022 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 18 | #2,352 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,204 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 16 | #2,500 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,386 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,035 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Brenna a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Brenna has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 80 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Brenna: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brenna, and how old are they?
28,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 29,371 Americans ever recorded as Brenna. The median Brenna alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 27,835 people named Brenna (27,773 women and girls, 62 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 28,205 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 378 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,170 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 9,730 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,800 |
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 Brenna born?
The states with the most babies named Brenna are Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with 59% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,932 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,031 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,159 | 1.1× |
| New York | 6 | #1,872 | 0.6× |
| Minnesota | 6 | #752 | 1.8× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,935 | 0.6× |
Where Brenna is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Brenna is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1946 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 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 Brenna 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 145,410 babies since 1880, Brenna is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 108 of their 205 babies (53%), the 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 Brenna
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 Brenna and names like it
- Compare Brenna and BreannaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sBrenna peaked in 1995.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brenna since 1910.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Brenna.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Brenna alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.