Briar
Briar is a unisex name: 778 girls and 397 boys were given it in 2025 (#400 among girls’ names and #686 among boys’, #563 among all names counting both); 13,349 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Briar every year since 2015.
An estimated 13,200 Americans named Briar and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Briar by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Briar mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Briar is “a unisex given name from English.” Its etymology gives the sense “briar” (brere).
As a surname Middle English brere (“briar”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Briar?
#400 among girls’ names, 2025
Briar rose from #836 in 2015 to #400 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.19 to 0.48 per 1,000.
1,175 babies in 2025, the peak
Briar peaked in 2025, when 1,175 babies were given it (778 girls, #400 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 589 girls.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 778 | #400 | 397 | #686 |
| 2024 | 589 | #522 | 387 | #698 |
| 2023 | 550 | #549 | 405 | #671 |
| 2022 | 579 | #534 | 347 | #741 |
| 2021 | 597 | #516 | 364 | #714 |
| 2020 | 519 | #567 | 318 | #757 |
| 2019 | 529 | #578 | 302 | #775 |
| 2018 | 422 | #687 | 278 | #810 |
| 2017 | 397 | #722 | 244 | #882 |
| 2016 | 355 | #801 | 203 | #1,008 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 336 | #836 | 203 | #1,006 |
| 2014 | 158 | #1,437 | 203 | #1,008 |
| 2013 | 108 | #1,868 | 161 | #1,128 |
| 2012 | 108 | #1,860 | 189 | #1,030 |
| 2011 | 104 | #1,911 | 172 | #1,083 |
| 2010 | 70 | #2,590 | 173 | #1,105 |
| 2009 | 72 | #2,570 | 138 | #1,273 |
| 2008 | 51 | #3,275 | 152 | #1,176 |
| 2007 | 73 | #2,544 | 139 | #1,263 |
| 2006 | 53 | #3,138 | 132 | #1,266 |
| 2005 | 30 | #4,498 | 117 | #1,302 |
| 2004 | 37 | #3,833 | 125 | #1,216 |
| 2003 | 43 | #3,357 | 132 | #1,141 |
| 2002 | 34 | #3,818 | 101 | #1,313 |
| 2001 | 38 | #3,494 | 107 | #1,240 |
| 2000 | 35 | #3,669 | 101 | #1,279 |
| 1999 | 29 | #3,987 | 68 | #1,591 |
| 1998 | 31 | #3,740 | 59 | #1,720 |
| 1997 | 29 | #3,826 | 72 | #1,478 |
| 1996 | 22 | #4,605 | 83 | #1,313 |
| 1995 | 15 | #6,002 | 105 | #1,104 |
| 1994 | 22 | #4,535 | 81 | #1,292 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,399 | 54 | #1,634 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,075 | 59 | #1,506 |
| 1991 | 15 | #5,977 | 92 | #1,141 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,337 | 43 | #1,808 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,015 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,486 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,081 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 5 | #11,102 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 5 | #10,857 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,577 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,560 | 5 | #6,482 |
| 1981 | 11 | #5,921 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,262 | 5 | #6,365 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,136 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,020 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,560 | 7 | #4,642 |
| 1976 | 8 | #6,683 | 6 | #4,997 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,223 | 8 | #3,988 |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,908 | under 5 | |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,523 | 5 | #5,189 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,413 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 5 | #4,994 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Briar a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 13,349 Americans recorded as Briar, 52% are girls and 48% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Briar: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Briar, and how old are they?
13,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 13,349 Americans ever recorded as Briar. The median Briar alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 7,060 people named Briar (3,276 women and girls, 3,784 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,655 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 86 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 689 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,780 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,670 |
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 Briar born?
The states with the most babies named Briar are Texas, Ohio and Tennessee, with 18% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 106 | #416 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 49 | #350 | 1.1× |
| Tennessee | 47 | #338 | 1.4× |
| Iowa | 47 | #106 | 2.3× |
| Indiana | 45 | #260 | 1.7× |
| Missouri | 44 | #240 | 1.9× |
| Michigan | 44 | #306 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 43 | #387 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 43 | #655 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 39 | #433 | 0.9× |
Where Briar is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Briar is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1971 it was given 2.5 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 Briar with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Briar
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 Briar and names like it
- Compare Briar and PeaceBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBriar peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Briar since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Briar: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Briar.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Briar alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.