Briannah
A feminine name of unknown origin, potentially a blend of Brianna and Hannah.
Name Census estimates that about 1,417 living Americans carry the first name Briannah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Briannah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Briannah births was 2008 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Briannah. 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 Briannah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 241,887 Americans
Peak year
2008
86 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,703
Tracked since 1987
Census
Briannah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,167 people with the first name Briannah, which placed it at #11,134 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
#11,134
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,167 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Briannah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briannah is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Hispanic (20.5%). 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 Briannah 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 Briannah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.0% · 560
- Black or African American20.9% · 244
- Hispanic or Latino20.5% · 239
- Two or more races8.1% · 95
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 14
Popularity
Briannah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Briannah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 737 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
Briannah 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 Briannah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Briannahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Briannah, while Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Briannah
The name Briannah is a relatively modern variation of the name Brianna, which is derived from the Celtic word "brig" meaning "high" or "exalted". The name is thought to have originated in Ireland or Scotland in the Middle Ages, with its earliest recorded usage dating back to the 12th century.
The name Brianna was initially a feminine form of the Irish name Brian, which itself comes from the Old Celtic word "bri" meaning "hill" or "elevated". This connection to elevated or exalted places and concepts likely contributed to the name's association with nobility and strength.
While there are no known references to the name Briannah in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the name Brianna has been recorded in various historical documents and literary works throughout the centuries. One of the earliest recorded individuals bearing this name was Brianna of Tewkesbury, an English noblewoman who lived in the 13th century.
In the 16th century, Brianna MacKenzie was a Scottish chieftain who played a prominent role in the Wars of Scottish Independence against England. Another notable figure was Brianna O'Malley, an Irish pirate queen who lived in the 16th century and was renowned for her bravery and maritime exploits.
During the 18th century, Brianna Fitzgerald was an Irish author and poet who wrote extensively about the struggles and experiences of the Irish people during the tumultuous times of British rule. In the 19th century, Brianna Cartwright was a British suffragette and activist who campaigned tirelessly for women's rights and political representation.
More recently, in the 20th century, Brianna Hogan was an American civil rights activist who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
While the spelling variation "Briannah" is more modern and less common than the traditional "Brianna", it maintains the same strong and noble connotations associated with its Celtic roots.
People
Briannah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Briannah 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
Briannah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Briannah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,417 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Briannah 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 241,887 US residents.
Is Briannah a common name?
We classify Briannah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,443 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Briannah most popular?
The single biggest year for Briannah was 2008, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Briannah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Briannah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,167 people with the name Briannah, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,134 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 Briannah 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 Briannah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Briannah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,171 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Briannah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briannah is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Hispanic (20.5%). 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 Briannah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Briannah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (560 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 Briannah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Briannah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Briannah in the SSA data are female. 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 Briannah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Briannah 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 Briannah 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 Americans are named Briannah?
You can see how many people share the name Briannah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.