Brando
A masculine name of Italian origin meaning "firebrand" or "sword".
Name Census estimates that about 2,043 living Americans carry the first name Brando. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brando today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brando births was 2005 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brando. 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 Brando with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 167,770 Americans
Peak year
2005
104 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,076
Tracked since 1955
Census
Brando in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,456 people with the first name Brando, which placed it at #6,513 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
#6,513
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,456 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brando
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brando is Hispanic at 67.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%). 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 Brando 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 Brando at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino67.8% · 1,666
- White17.2% · 422
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.5% · 159
- Black or African American5.8% · 142
- Two or more races1.9% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 21
Popularity
Brando: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brando from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 794 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
Brando 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 Brando during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brandos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Brando, while Oregon, Maryland, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 102 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brando
The name Brando is believed to have originated from the Italian language, specifically in the northern regions of Italy. It is thought to be a derivative of the medieval Italian name "Brando" or "Brandon," which in turn traces its roots to the Germanic word "brant," meaning "sword" or "fire."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brando can be found in the 12th century, when a nobleman named Brando Castiglioni was mentioned in historical records from the city of Milan. This suggests that the name was in use among the aristocracy of northern Italy during the medieval period.
In the realm of literature, the name Brando appears in Dante Alighieri's famous work, "The Divine Comedy." In the Inferno section of the epic poem, a character named Brando Doria is mentioned as being punished in the seventh circle of Hell for his sins of violence.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the first name Brando. One of the most famous is the American actor Marlon Brando (1924-2004), widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. His iconic performances in films such as "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Godfather" cemented his place in cinematic history.
Another prominent individual with the name Brando was Brando Brandolini d'Adda (1937-2022), an Italian businessman and politician who served as a member of the European Parliament and held various positions in the Italian government.
In the world of sports, Brando Polanco (born 1978) is a former Major League Baseball player from the Dominican Republic, who played for several teams including the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees.
Brando Quiroga (born 1991) is an Argentine professional footballer who has played for various clubs in his home country as well as in Mexico and Chile.
Lastly, Brando Yelavich (born 1974) is a New Zealand artist and painter known for his abstract and contemporary works, which have been exhibited internationally.
While the name Brando may have originated from a specific region and language, it has transcended cultural boundaries and gained recognition across various fields, from acting and politics to sports and the arts.
People
Brando + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brando 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
Brando: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brando?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,043 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brando 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 167,770 US residents.
Is Brando a common name?
We classify Brando as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,085 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brando most popular?
The single biggest year for Brando was 2005, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brando is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brando in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,456 people with the name Brando, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,513 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 Brando 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 Brando?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brando leans strongly male. 2,425 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 26 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Brando?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brando is Hispanic at 67.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%). 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 Brando most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Brando in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (1,666 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 Brando in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brando a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brando 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 Brando still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brando 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 Brando 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 Brando?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.