Brighten
Brighten was last recorded in 2024, when 13 babies were given it; 263 Americans have been recorded with it between 2000 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Brighten by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Brighten?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #10,055, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
22 babies in 2010, the peak
Brighten peaked in 2010, when 22 babies were given it (15 boys, #5,772 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6 | #13,769 | 7 | #10,055 |
| 2023 | under 5 | 7 | #9,894 | |
| 2022 | 5 | #15,712 | 8 | #9,100 |
| 2021 | under 5 | 11 | #7,157 | |
| 2020 | 6 | #13,753 | 5 | #12,299 |
| 2019 | under 5 | 9 | #8,303 | |
| 2018 | 9 | #10,716 | 11 | #7,191 |
| 2017 | 11 | #9,432 | 8 | #8,960 |
| 2016 | under 5 | 10 | #7,673 | |
| 2015 | 5 | #16,909 | 13 | #6,377 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 5 | #17,013 | 12 | #6,694 |
| 2013 | 5 | #16,997 | 8 | #8,914 |
| 2012 | 6 | #15,294 | 5 | #12,544 |
| 2010 | 7 | #13,706 | 15 | #5,772 |
| 2009 | 5 | #17,767 | 8 | #9,093 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,090 | 6 | #11,245 |
| 2007 | 5 | #18,098 | 5 | #12,614 |
| 2006 | under 5 | 5 | #12,286 | |
| 2005 | 9 | #11,064 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 5 | #11,598 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 7 | #8,777 | |
| 2000 | 7 | #11,980 | under 5 |
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 Brighten a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 263 Americans recorded as Brighten, 37% are girls and 63% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Brighten: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Brighten, and how old are they?
An estimated 261 Americans named Brighten and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 8 and 17. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 235 people named Brighten (109 women and girls, 126 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 209 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 5,424 babies since 1880, Brighten is the second most given (4.8% of them). In 2025 none of their 154 babies recorded by SSA was a Brighten (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Brighten
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 Brighten and names like it
- Compare Brighten and BrightonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sBrighten peaked in 2010.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Brighten.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Brighten alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.