Bret
Bret was given to 20 boys in 2025, #4,882 among boys’ names; 30,051 Americans have been recorded with it since 1926 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 26,100 Americans named Bret and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (87% of everyone recorded); the median is 50 years old and half are between 37 and 61.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bret by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bret mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bret is “a male given name transferred from the surname, variant of Brett, ultimately meaning “a Breton”.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bret?
#4,882 among boys’ names, 2025
Bret fell from #3,377 in 2015 to #4,882 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 17.2 to 11.7 per million.
1,839 babies in 1959, the peak
Bret peaked in 1959, when 1,839 boys were given it, #170 among boys’ names. The 20 births of 2025 are 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 20 | #4,882 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 21 | #4,722 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 27 | #4,014 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 23 | #4,452 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 22 | #4,509 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 17 | #5,271 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 21 | #4,656 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 34 | #3,303 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 23 | #4,341 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 33 | #3,368 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (86)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | #3,377 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 45 | #2,667 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 39 | #2,896 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 42 | #2,819 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 72 | #1,930 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 89 | #1,716 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 96 | #1,640 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 123 | #1,380 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 109 | #1,465 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 99 | #1,519 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 151 | #1,093 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 160 | #1,021 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 171 | #955 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 189 | #868 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 246 | #713 | 0.13 |
| 2000 | 274 | #656 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 335 | #579 | 0.17 |
| 1998 | 305 | #605 | 0.16 |
| 1997 | 285 | #614 | 0.15 |
| 1996 | 350 | #544 | 0.18 |
| 1995 | 388 | #519 | 0.20 |
| 1994 | 414 | #494 | 0.21 |
| 1993 | 405 | #507 | 0.21 |
| 1992 | 463 | #468 | 0.23 |
| 1991 | 516 | #434 | 0.26 |
| 1990 | 546 | #417 | 0.27 |
| 1989 | 545 | #398 | 0.27 |
| 1988 | 487 | #410 | 0.25 |
| 1987 | 536 | #365 | 0.29 |
| 1986 | 509 | #366 | 0.28 |
| 1985 | 502 | #365 | 0.27 |
| 1984 | 458 | #381 | 0.25 |
| 1983 | 504 | #352 | 0.28 |
| 1982 | 1,098 | #217 | 0.61 |
| 1981 | 532 | #342 | 0.30 |
| 1980 | 410 | #400 | 0.23 |
| 1979 | 490 | #359 | 0.28 |
| 1978 | 381 | #396 | 0.23 |
| 1977 | 415 | #385 | 0.25 |
| 1976 | 505 | #341 | 0.32 |
| 1975 | 462 | #359 | 0.30 |
| 1974 | 509 | #342 | 0.32 |
| 1973 | 541 | #322 | 0.35 |
| 1972 | 628 | #293 | 0.39 |
| 1971 | 734 | #284 | 0.42 |
| 1970 | 871 | #260 | 0.47 |
| 1969 | 791 | #264 | 0.44 |
| 1968 | 841 | #246 | 0.48 |
| 1967 | 837 | #243 | 0.48 |
| 1966 | 860 | #243 | 0.48 |
| 1965 | 743 | #274 | 0.40 |
| 1964 | 786 | #275 | 0.39 |
| 1963 | 787 | #274 | 0.39 |
| 1962 | 787 | #274 | 0.38 |
| 1961 | 741 | #284 | 0.35 |
| 1960 | 1,242 | #223 | 0.58 |
| 1959 | 1,839 | #170 | 0.86 |
| 1958 | 1,514 | #187 | 0.71 |
| 1957 | 194 | #555 | 0.09 |
| 1956 | 81 | #830 | 0.04 |
| 1955 | 91 | #762 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 82 | #794 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 55 | #967 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 48 | #1,044 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 25 | #1,489 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 34 | #1,232 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 25 | #1,465 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 19 | #1,708 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 28 | #1,396 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 12 | #2,157 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 10 | #2,265 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 8 | #2,656 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 12 | #2,188 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 9 | #2,507 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,343 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,274 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bret a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bret has been given almost only to boys: 232 girls in 86 years of records.
Girls and boys named Bret: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bret, and how old are they?
26,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 87% of the 30,051 Americans ever recorded as Bret. The median Bret alive today is 50 years old; half are between 37 and 61.
The 2020 Census counted 25,548 people named Bret (244 women and girls, 25,304 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 27,079 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 18 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 6,250 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,780 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,960 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,750 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 355 |
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 Bret born?
The states with the most babies named Bret are California, Ohio and Illinois, with 27% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,880 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 1,825 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 1,545 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 1,532 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 1,210 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 1,198 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Indiana | 1,157 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| New York | 1,041 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Utah | 970 | not ranked | 3.4× |
| Iowa | 964 | not ranked | 2.3× |
Where Bret is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bret is most over-represented in Utah: since 1926 it was given 3.4 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 Bret 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 226,806 babies since 1880, Bret is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 20 of their 170 babies (12%), the second 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 Bret
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 Bret and names like it
- Compare Bret and BrettBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sBret peaked in 1959.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bret since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Bret: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1959The year the most babies were named Bret.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Bret alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with BMost given first.