Brenan
A Gaelic name meaning "descendant of the freckled one".
Name Census estimates that about 816 living Americans carry the first name Brenan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brenan today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brenan births was 2009 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brenan. 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.
People living today
816
~ 1 in 420,042 Americans
Peak year
2009
42 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,862
Tracked since 1972
Census
Brenan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 915 people with the first name Brenan, which placed it at #13,263 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
#13,263
National first-name rank
People counted
915
915 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brenan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brenan is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Brenan 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 Brenan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.4% · 690
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 90
- Black or African American6.3% · 58
- Two or more races4.5% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 11
Popularity
Brenan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brenan 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 296 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
Brenan 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 Brenan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brenans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Brenan, while Utah, Illinois, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brenan
The name Brenan is derived from the Irish Gaelic word "bren," which means "rain" or "drop." This name has its origins in the ancient Celtic cultures of Ireland and Scotland, where it was likely first used as a descriptive name for someone who lived near a rainy area or was born during a particularly wet season.
The earliest recorded use of the name Brenan dates back to the 6th century in Ireland, where it was mentioned in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. During this time period, the name was primarily concentrated in the northern regions of Ireland and parts of Scotland.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Brenan was Saint Brenan of Clonfert, an Irish monk and scholar who lived in the 6th century. He is renowned for founding the monastic school of Clonfert and for his contributions to the preservation of Irish scholarship and literature during the Middle Ages.
In the 12th century, a man named Brenan O'Rourke was recorded as a prominent chieftain and military leader in the Irish annals. He played a significant role in the wars between the various Irish clans during this turbulent period of Irish history.
Another notable figure with the name Brenan was Sir Brenan O'Reilly, an Irish soldier and nobleman who fought alongside the English forces during the Tudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th century. Despite his Irish heritage, he was knighted by the English monarchy for his military service.
In the 19th century, Brenan Behan, an Irish playwright and novelist, gained recognition for his works that explored the struggles of the working-class in Dublin. His plays, such as "The Quare Fellow" and "The Hostage," became popular in the mid-20th century and helped to establish him as a significant figure in Irish literature.
Finally, one of the most recent notable individuals with the name Brenan was Brenan Naiman, an American professional wrestler who competed in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. He was known for his high-flying maneuvers and held several championship titles during his career.
People
Brenan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brenan 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
Brenan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brenan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 816 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brenan 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 420,042 US residents.
Is Brenan a common name?
We classify Brenan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 833 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brenan most popular?
The single biggest year for Brenan was 2009, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brenan is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brenan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 915 people with the name Brenan, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,263 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 Brenan 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 Brenan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brenan leans strongly male. 844 people counted with this name were male (92.6%), compared with 67 female bearers (7.4%). 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 Brenan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brenan is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Brenan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brenan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.4% (690 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 Brenan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brenan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brenan 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 Brenan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brenan 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 Brenan 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 are called Brenan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.