Bryn
Bryn is given to both girls and boys: 94 girls and 12 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,021 among girls’ names and #6,863 among boys’, #3,407 among all names counting both); 8,861 Americans have been recorded with it since 1947 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,610 Americans named Bryn and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 13 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bryn by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bryn mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bryn is “a female given name from Welsh in occasional modern use.” Its etymology gives the senses “hill, mound” (bryn) and “hill” (*brınn).
Also “a male given name from Welsh.”
From Welsh bryn (“hill, mound”), or Cumbric *brınn (“hill”) in the Greater Manchester place-name.
/bɹɪn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bryn?
#2,021 among girls’ names, 2025
Bryn fell from #1,163 in 2015 to #2,021 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.12 to 0.06 per 1,000.
387 babies in 2011, the peak
Bryn peaked in 2011, when 387 babies were given it (370 girls, #744 among girls’ names). The 106 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 27% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 94 | #2,021 | 12 | #6,863 |
| 2024 | 91 | #2,104 | 13 | #6,515 |
| 2023 | 93 | #2,079 | 13 | #6,591 |
| 2022 | 109 | #1,858 | 18 | #5,242 |
| 2021 | 138 | #1,528 | 14 | #6,072 |
| 2020 | 113 | #1,763 | 13 | #6,350 |
| 2019 | 148 | #1,483 | 14 | #6,146 |
| 2018 | 168 | #1,340 | 16 | #5,575 |
| 2017 | 133 | #1,626 | 16 | #5,562 |
| 2016 | 180 | #1,325 | 17 | #5,351 |
Every recorded year (78)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 217 | #1,163 | 15 | #5,775 |
| 2014 | 276 | #967 | 10 | #7,628 |
| 2013 | 337 | #803 | 15 | #5,697 |
| 2012 | 353 | #779 | 17 | #5,276 |
| 2011 | 370 | #744 | 17 | #5,226 |
| 2010 | 229 | #1,092 | 16 | #5,512 |
| 2009 | 157 | #1,482 | 10 | #7,760 |
| 2008 | 179 | #1,355 | 11 | #7,264 |
| 2007 | 185 | #1,319 | 11 | #7,159 |
| 2006 | 192 | #1,253 | 8 | #8,833 |
| 2005 | 213 | #1,113 | 17 | #4,844 |
| 2004 | 265 | #912 | 20 | #4,278 |
| 2003 | 212 | #1,059 | 23 | #3,738 |
| 2002 | 192 | #1,099 | 20 | #4,053 |
| 2001 | 171 | #1,193 | 22 | #3,724 |
| 2000 | 204 | #1,027 | 20 | #3,927 |
| 1999 | 212 | #974 | 9 | #6,602 |
| 1998 | 140 | #1,283 | 28 | #2,861 |
| 1997 | 100 | #1,594 | 19 | #3,609 |
| 1996 | 127 | #1,336 | 11 | #5,219 |
| 1995 | 108 | #1,472 | 27 | #2,687 |
| 1994 | 92 | #1,631 | 19 | #3,477 |
| 1993 | 101 | #1,539 | 32 | #2,348 |
| 1992 | 81 | #1,779 | 34 | #2,215 |
| 1991 | 98 | #1,560 | 37 | #2,020 |
| 1990 | 83 | #1,752 | 45 | #1,752 |
| 1989 | 85 | #1,627 | 42 | #1,794 |
| 1988 | 75 | #1,707 | 28 | #2,198 |
| 1987 | 67 | #1,762 | 31 | #1,977 |
| 1986 | 62 | #1,819 | 41 | #1,593 |
| 1985 | 66 | #1,726 | 28 | #2,023 |
| 1984 | 72 | #1,566 | 28 | #1,937 |
| 1983 | 65 | #1,692 | 27 | #1,963 |
| 1982 | 81 | #1,475 | 28 | #1,934 |
| 1981 | 70 | #1,645 | 23 | #2,208 |
| 1980 | 72 | #1,607 | 19 | #2,544 |
| 1979 | 82 | #1,462 | 19 | #2,476 |
| 1978 | 40 | #2,272 | 16 | #2,680 |
| 1977 | 36 | #2,427 | 16 | #2,674 |
| 1976 | 42 | #2,068 | 12 | #3,117 |
| 1975 | 39 | #2,172 | 21 | #2,139 |
| 1974 | 27 | #2,689 | 14 | #2,682 |
| 1973 | 35 | #2,225 | 21 | #1,989 |
| 1972 | 25 | #2,753 | 15 | #2,440 |
| 1971 | 24 | #2,878 | 20 | #2,062 |
| 1970 | 23 | #2,945 | 27 | #1,659 |
| 1969 | 20 | #3,020 | 16 | #2,140 |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,805 | 13 | #2,331 |
| 1967 | 16 | #3,223 | 15 | #2,041 |
| 1966 | 16 | #3,156 | 8 | #3,015 |
| 1965 | 17 | #3,063 | 17 | #1,922 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,715 | 12 | #2,430 |
| 1963 | 18 | #2,968 | 10 | #2,688 |
| 1962 | 15 | #3,305 | 17 | #1,973 |
| 1961 | 25 | #2,415 | 12 | #2,424 |
| 1960 | 22 | #2,579 | 12 | #2,438 |
| 1959 | 13 | #3,453 | 9 | #2,844 |
| 1958 | 15 | #3,100 | 13 | #2,275 |
| 1957 | 16 | #2,935 | 6 | #3,607 |
| 1956 | 9 | #4,194 | 8 | #2,998 |
| 1955 | 5 | #5,917 | 8 | #2,988 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,006 | under 5 | |
| 1953 | 10 | #3,723 | 5 | #3,863 |
| 1952 | 9 | #3,838 | under 5 | |
| 1951 | 7 | #4,424 | 5 | #3,780 |
| 1950 | 6 | #4,789 | under 5 | |
| 1949 | 9 | #3,649 | under 5 | |
| 1947 | under 5 | 8 | #2,902 |
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 Bryn a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,861 Americans recorded as Bryn, 85% are girls and 15% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bryn: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bryn, and how old are they?
8,610 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 8,861 Americans ever recorded as Bryn. The median Bryn alive today is 22 years old; half are between 13 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 8,179 people named Bryn (6,880 women and girls, 1,299 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,990 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 254 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 732 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,750 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,270 |
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 Bryn born?
The states with the most babies named Bryn are Pennsylvania, California and Florida, with 59% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #942 | 1.6× |
| California | 7 | #2,545 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,724 | 0.4× |
| Texas | 6 | #2,992 | 0.5× |
| New York | 5 | #2,148 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,247 | 0.5× |
Where Bryn is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bryn is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1947 it was given 1.6 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 Bryn 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 40,624 babies since 1880, Bryn is the second most given (22% of them). In 2025 it was given to 106 of their 889 babies (12%), again the second 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 Bryn
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 Bryn and names like it
- Compare Bryn and BrynnBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sBryn peaked in 2011.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bryn since 1910.
- Welsh namesWiktionary’s origin for Bryn: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Bryn.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Bryn alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.