Brennen
Brennen was given to 20 boys in 2025, #4,881 among boys’ names; 9,217 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,000 Americans named Brennen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 17 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brennen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Brennen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Brennen is “a male given name.”
Compare Brennan.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Brennen?
#4,881 among boys’ names, 2025
Brennen fell from #1,261 in 2015 to #4,881 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 74.6 to 11.7 per million.
464 babies in 2009, the peak
Brennen peaked in 2009, when 464 babies were given it (455 boys, #580 among boys’ names). The 20 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 20 | #4,881 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 31 | #3,621 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 34 | #3,426 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 39 | #3,108 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 53 | #2,506 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 57 | #2,349 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 74 | #1,976 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,147 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 88 | #1,749 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 126 | #1,391 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 143 | #1,261 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 153 | #1,202 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 192 | #1,014 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 302 | #757 | 0.16 |
| 2011 | 306 | #740 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 387 | #629 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 455 | #580 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 375 | #650 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 366 | #654 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 292 | #732 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 326 | #659 | 0.16 |
| 2004 | 337 | #627 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 400 | #560 | 0.20 |
| 2002 | 367 | #583 | 0.19 |
| 2001 | 362 | #571 | 0.19 |
| 2000 | 384 | #549 | 0.20 |
| 1999 | 341 | #573 | 0.18 |
| 1998 | 378 | #534 | 0.20 |
| 1997 | 322 | #575 | 0.17 |
| 1996 | 254 | #655 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 250 | #660 | 0.13 |
| 1994 | 242 | #667 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 185 | #769 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 180 | #777 | 0.09 |
| 1991 | 159 | #815 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 131 | #896 | 0.06 |
| 1989 | 135 | #861 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 123 | #856 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 93 | #982 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 60 | #1,242 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 54 | #1,304 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 51 | #1,296 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 37 | #1,599 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 45 | #1,418 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 21 | #2,350 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 36 | #1,624 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 27 | #1,947 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 17 | #2,580 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 26 | #1,912 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 17 | #2,517 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 24 | #1,952 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 12 | #2,969 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,103 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,657 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 11 | #2,990 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 17 | #2,221 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,341 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #2,930 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 7 | #3,274 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,270 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,104 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,675 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Brennen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,217 Americans recorded as Brennen, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 20 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 Brennen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brennen, and how old are they?
9,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 9,217 Americans ever recorded as Brennen. The median Brennen alive today is 23 years old; half are between 17 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 8,145 people named Brennen (209 women and girls, 7,936 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,845 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 214 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,990 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,710 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,080 |
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 Brennen born?
The states with the most babies named Brennen are California, Ohio and Texas, with 26% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 752 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 525 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Texas | 484 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 468 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Louisiana | 318 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 286 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 276 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Florida | 270 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Minnesota | 239 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Wisconsin | 232 | not ranked | 1.4× |
Where Brennen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Brennen is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1962 it was given 2.1 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 Brennen 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 50,915 babies since 1880, Brennen is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 20 of their 277 babies (7.2%), 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 Brennen
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 Brennen and names like it
- Compare Brennen and BrennanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sBrennen peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brennen since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Brennen.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Brennen alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.