Breton
Breton was given to 5 boys in 2025, #12,316 among boys’ names; 456 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Breton by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Breton?
#12,316 among boys’ names, 2025
Breton fell from #8,126 in 2015 to #12,316 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 4.7 to 2.9 per million.
19 babies in 1988, the peak
Breton peaked in 1988, when 19 boys were given it, #2,863 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 26% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #12,316 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 8 | #9,095 | 4.6 |
| 2021 | 7 | #9,865 | 4.0 |
| 2020 | 7 | #9,713 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 5 | #12,417 | 2.8 |
| 2018 | 6 | #10,968 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 6 | #10,970 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 6 | #10,939 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 9 | #8,126 | 4.7 |
| 2013 | 8 | #8,908 | 4.2 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 7 | #9,844 | 3.7 |
| 2007 | 7 | #9,905 | 3.4 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,511 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 9 | #7,701 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 7 | #8,773 | 3.5 |
| 2002 | 7 | #8,565 | 3.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #9,403 | 3.1 |
| 2000 | 6 | #9,219 | 3.1 |
| 1999 | 9 | #6,596 | 4.7 |
| 1998 | 5 | #9,802 | 2.6 |
| 1997 | 6 | #8,251 | 3.2 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,222 | 3.7 |
| 1995 | 12 | #4,822 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,489 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,728 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,271 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 7 | #6,588 | 3.5 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,436 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 9 | #5,205 | 4.5 |
| 1988 | 19 | #2,863 | 9.9 |
| 1987 | 13 | #3,544 | 7.0 |
| 1986 | 16 | #3,015 | 8.7 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,424 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 13 | #3,288 | 7.2 |
| 1983 | 9 | #4,169 | 5.0 |
| 1982 | 10 | #3,993 | 5.5 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,187 | 5.0 |
| 1980 | 7 | #4,992 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,435 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,904 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 5 | #5,945 | 3.0 |
| 1975 | 8 | #3,987 | 5.1 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,232 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,742 | 5.1 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,498 | 3.7 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,293 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 6 | #3,994 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,724 | 3.5 |
| 1967 | 8 | #3,016 | 4.6 |
| 1966 | 10 | #2,641 | 5.6 |
| 1963 | 11 | #2,550 | 5.4 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,068 | 3.9 |
| 1961 | 7 | #3,389 | 3.3 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,095 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 8 | #3,060 | 3.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Breton a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Breton has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Breton: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Breton, and how old are they?
An estimated 425 Americans named Breton and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 23 and 46. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 492 people named Breton (49 women and girls, 443 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 409 born in the U.S. The Census count is 20% 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,632 babies since 1880, Breton is the third most given (13% of them).
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 Breton
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 Breton and names like it
- Compare Breton and BertonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sBreton peaked in 1988.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Breton.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Breton alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.