Brett
Brett was given to 133 boys in 2025, #1,382 among boys’ names; 162,513 Americans have been recorded with it since 1926 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 148,000 Americans named Brett and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 32 and 53.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brett by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Brett mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Brett is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.”
Related to Breton, Brittany, and more distantly Briton.
/bɹɛt/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Brett?
#1,382 among boys’ names, 2025
Brett fell from #745 in 2015 to #1,382 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.17 to 0.08 per 1,000.
4,904 babies in 1986, the peak
Brett peaked in 1986, when 4,904 babies were given it (4,729 boys, #69 among boys’ names). The 144 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 133 | #1,382 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 207 | #1,058 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 187 | #1,130 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 216 | #1,027 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 201 | #1,064 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 241 | #925 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 275 | #820 | 0.15 |
| 2018 | 288 | #788 | 0.16 |
| 2017 | 315 | #748 | 0.17 |
| 2016 | 333 | #733 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 324 | #745 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 386 | #664 | 0.20 |
| 2013 | 360 | #669 | 0.19 |
| 2012 | 427 | #596 | 0.23 |
| 2011 | 510 | #509 | 0.27 |
| 2010 | 729 | #389 | 0.38 |
| 2009 | 766 | #392 | 0.39 |
| 2008 | 1,070 | #311 | 0.52 |
| 2007 | 958 | #333 | 0.46 |
| 2006 | 1,082 | #304 | 0.53 |
| 2005 | 1,389 | #243 | 0.70 |
| 2004 | 1,565 | #222 | 0.79 |
| 2003 | 1,614 | #217 | 0.82 |
| 2002 | 1,868 | #198 | 1.0 |
| 2001 | 1,964 | #188 | 1.0 |
| 2000 | 2,383 | #163 | 1.2 |
| 1999 | 2,773 | #137 | 1.4 |
| 1998 | 2,886 | #133 | 1.5 |
| 1997 | 3,268 | #116 | 1.7 |
| 1996 | 3,577 | #110 | 1.9 |
| 1995 | 3,567 | #106 | 1.9 |
| 1994 | 3,435 | #107 | 1.8 |
| 1993 | 3,546 | #102 | 1.8 |
| 1992 | 3,823 | #97 | 1.9 |
| 1991 | 4,153 | #88 | 2.1 |
| 1990 | 4,394 | #84 | 2.1 |
| 1989 | 4,428 | #81 | 2.2 |
| 1988 | 4,375 | #73 | 2.3 |
| 1987 | 4,429 | #71 | 2.4 |
| 1986 | 4,729 | #69 | 2.6 |
| 1985 | 4,328 | #70 | 2.3 |
| 1984 | 4,096 | #72 | 2.3 |
| 1983 | 3,975 | #73 | 2.2 |
| 1982 | 4,026 | #72 | 2.2 |
| 1981 | 3,775 | #79 | 2.1 |
| 1980 | 3,128 | #96 | 1.8 |
| 1979 | 2,997 | #98 | 1.7 |
| 1978 | 2,305 | #112 | 1.4 |
| 1977 | 2,489 | #109 | 1.5 |
| 1976 | 2,415 | #109 | 1.5 |
| 1975 | 2,779 | #92 | 1.8 |
| 1974 | 2,677 | #95 | 1.7 |
| 1973 | 3,030 | #88 | 1.9 |
| 1972 | 3,503 | #80 | 2.2 |
| 1971 | 3,357 | #90 | 1.9 |
| 1970 | 3,370 | #99 | 1.8 |
| 1969 | 3,183 | #94 | 1.8 |
| 1968 | 2,901 | #105 | 1.7 |
| 1967 | 2,790 | #111 | 1.6 |
| 1966 | 2,575 | #118 | 1.4 |
| 1965 | 2,342 | #132 | 1.3 |
| 1964 | 2,551 | #129 | 1.3 |
| 1963 | 2,610 | #129 | 1.3 |
| 1962 | 2,494 | #141 | 1.2 |
| 1961 | 2,069 | #159 | 1.0 |
| 1960 | 2,320 | #151 | 1.1 |
| 1959 | 2,226 | #154 | 1.0 |
| 1958 | 2,135 | #155 | 1.0 |
| 1957 | 653 | #293 | 0.30 |
| 1956 | 393 | #375 | 0.19 |
| 1955 | 464 | #340 | 0.23 |
| 1954 | 430 | #341 | 0.21 |
| 1953 | 265 | #436 | 0.13 |
| 1952 | 251 | #444 | 0.13 |
| 1951 | 223 | #451 | 0.12 |
| 1950 | 215 | #448 | 0.12 |
| 1949 | 139 | #568 | 0.08 |
| 1948 | 140 | #563 | 0.08 |
| 1947 | 94 | #706 | 0.05 |
| 1946 | 48 | #969 | 0.03 |
| 1945 | 26 | #1,298 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 18 | #1,636 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 25 | #1,400 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 25 | #1,383 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 18 | #1,641 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 14 | #1,907 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 10 | #2,303 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 8 | #2,671 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,585 | under 0.01 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,709 | under 0.01 |
| 1934 | 5 | #3,729 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 5 | #3,837 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,030 | under 0.01 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,275 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Brett a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 162,513 Americans recorded as Brett, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 11 girls and 133 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Brett: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brett, and how old are they?
148,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 162,513 Americans ever recorded as Brett. The median Brett alive today is 41 years old; half are between 32 and 53.
The 2020 Census counted 142,080 people named Brett (2,685 women and girls, 139,395 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 150,801 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 | 53 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 14,900 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 41,300 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 62,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 25,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,630 |
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 Brett born?
The states with the most babies named Brett are Texas, New York and California, with 47% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 13 | #1,423 | 0.6× |
| New York | 11 | #1,065 | 0.8× |
| California | 9 | #1,705 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,270 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,121 | 1.1× |
| Louisiana | 6 | #677 | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 6 | #986 | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 5 | #714 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,301 | 0.5× |
Where Brett is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Brett is most over-represented in Kansas: since 1926 it was given 1.9 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 Brett 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 227,140 babies since 1880, Brett is the most given (72% of them). In 2025 it was given to 144 of their 204 babies (71%), again the 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 Brett
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 Brett and names like it
- Compare Brett and BertBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sBrett peaked in 1986.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Brett since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Brett: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1986The year the most babies were named Brett.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Brett alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.