Bradon
Variant spelling of Brandon, a masculine name of English origin meaning "hill covered with broom shrubs".
Name Census estimates that about 2,008 living Americans carry the first name Bradon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bradon today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bradon births was 2005 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bradon. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Bradon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 170,694 Americans
Peak year
2005
104 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,005
Tracked since 1970
Census
Bradon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,990 people with the first name Bradon, which placed it at #5,655 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,655
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,990 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bradon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bradon is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Hispanic (11.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Bradon described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Bradon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 2,050
- Black or African American12.0% · 359
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 340
- Two or more races4.8% · 143
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 63
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 35
Popularity
Bradon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bradon from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 809 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bradon by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Bradon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bradons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Bradon, while Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bradon
The name Bradon is a variant of the English name Brandon, which is derived from the Old English words "brun" meaning "brown" and "dun" meaning "hill" or "down". It is believed to have originated as a surname in the Middle Ages, referring to someone who lived on or near a brown hill or down.
The earliest recorded use of the name Brandon dates back to the 12th century, when it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, a record of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name was likely of Anglo-Saxon origin, but it gained popularity during the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Brandon was Brandon de Goushill, who lived in the 13th century and was a prominent landowner in Yorkshire, England. Another notable figure was Sir William Brandon, who served as Standard-Bearer to Henry V during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
In the 16th century, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (c. 1484-1545), was a close friend and brother-in-law of King Henry VIII of England. He played a significant role in the English Reformation and was a influential figure in the Tudor court.
During the 17th century, Robert Brandon (c. 1610-1690) was an English Puritan minister and author who wrote several religious works, including "The Doctrine of Remission" and "A Treatise on Justification".
In the 19th century, John Raphael Brandon (1817-1877) was an English wood engraver and author who produced numerous illustrations for books and magazines. His work was highly influential in the development of wood engraving as an art form.
While the name Brandon has a long history, the variant spelling Bradon is relatively more modern and less common. However, it still carries the same meaning and historical significance as its parent name.
People
Bradon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bradon as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bradon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bradon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,008 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bradon going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 170,694 US residents.
Is Bradon a common name?
We classify Bradon as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,055 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bradon most popular?
The single biggest year for Bradon was 2005, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bradon is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bradon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,990 people with the name Bradon, or 0.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,655 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Bradon in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Bradon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bradon appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,993 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Bradon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bradon is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Hispanic (11.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Bradon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bradon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (2,050 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Bradon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bradon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bradon in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Bradon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bradon in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Bradon can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Bradon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.