Briggs
Of English origin, stemming from a geographical location name and denoting a bridge.
Name Census estimates that about 8,449 living Americans carry the first name Briggs. It sits at #326 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Briggs today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Briggs births was 2024 (1,069 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Briggs. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Briggs is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 90 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Briggs is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
8.4K
~ 1 in 40,567 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,069 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#326
Tracked since 1927
Census
Briggs in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,102 people with the first name Briggs, which placed it at #4,512 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
#4,512
National first-name rank
People counted
4.1K
4,102 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Briggs
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briggs is White at 92.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.4%) and Hispanic (2.6%). 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 Briggs 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 Briggs at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.2% · 3,784
- Two or more races3.4% · 138
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 107
- Black or African American1.1% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Briggs
Briggs leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 90 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Briggs as a male name
- Ranked #326 in 2024
- 1,057 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,057 births)
Briggs as a female name
- Ranked #8,513 in 2024
- 12 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Briggs leans strongly male. 4,012 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 92 female bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Briggs: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Briggs from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 4,465 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Briggs 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 Briggs during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Briggs' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. Texas, Utah, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Briggs, while Connecticut, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 180 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Briggs
The name Briggs is an English surname that originated as a patronymic, meaning "son of Brigg." The name Brigg is derived from the Old Norse word "bryggja," which means "bridge" or "jetty." This suggests that the name may have been given to someone who lived near a bridge or worked as a bridge builder or toll collector.
The earliest known record of the name Briggs as a given name dates back to the late 16th century. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this first name was Henry Briggs, a prominent English mathematician and geometer who lived from 1561 to 1630. He is best known for his work on logarithms and for introducing the modern decimal notation for logarithms.
Another notable figure with the name Briggs was Charles Augustus Briggs, an American Presbyterian scholar who lived from 1841 to 1913. He was a prominent Bible scholar and one of the founders of the American Society of Church History. Briggs played a significant role in the higher criticism of the Bible and faced charges of heresy for his views on biblical inerrancy.
Briggs Cunningham, born in 1907 and died in 2003, was an American entrepreneur, sportsman, and race car constructor. He was a pioneer in the field of sports car racing and was instrumental in bringing European-style road racing to the United States. Cunningham's racing team, Briggs Cunningham Racing, competed in numerous prestigious events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In the field of literature, Briggs Tanner was an American author and journalist who lived from 1911 to 1978. He is best known for his novel "The Circle of the Day," which was published in 1956 and received critical acclaim for its portrayal of small-town life in the American South.
Another individual with the name Briggs was Cyril Briggs, an Australian artist and illustrator who lived from 1888 to 1966. He is renowned for his illustrations of Australian flora and fauna, particularly his depictions of native wildflowers, which earned him widespread recognition and appreciation.
While the name Briggs is not as common as some other given names, it has been carried by several notable individuals throughout history, particularly in the fields of mathematics, academia, sports, and the arts.
People
Briggs + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Briggs 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
Briggs: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Briggs?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,449 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Briggs 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 40,567 US residents.
Is Briggs a common name?
We classify Briggs as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,542 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Briggs most popular?
The single biggest year for Briggs was 2024, when 1,069 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Briggs is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Briggs in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,102 people with the name Briggs, or 1.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,512 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 Briggs 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 Briggs?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Briggs leans strongly male. 4,012 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 92 female bearers (2.2%). 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 Briggs?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Briggs is White at 92.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.4%) and Hispanic (2.6%). 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 Briggs most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Briggs in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.2% (3,784 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 Briggs in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Briggs a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Briggs 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 Briggs still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Briggs 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 Briggs 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 common is the name Briggs?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.