Brisa
A feminine Spanish name meaning "gentle breeze".
Name Census estimates that about 8,329 living Americans carry the first name Brisa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Brisa today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brisa births was 2010 (653 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brisa. 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
8.3K
~ 1 in 41,152 Americans
Peak year
2010
653 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,920
Tracked since 1974
Census
Brisa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,578 people with the first name Brisa, which placed it at #2,964 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
#2,964
National first-name rank
People counted
7.6K
7,578 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
94.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brisa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brisa is Hispanic at 94.6%. The next largest groups are White (3.9%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Brisa 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 Brisa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino94.6% · 7,170
- White3.9% · 295
- Two or more races0.5% · 38
- Black or African American0.5% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 8
Popularity
Brisa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brisa 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 4,346 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
Brisa 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 Brisa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brisas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Brisa, while Ohio, Louisiana, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 207 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brisa
The name Brisa has its origins in the Spanish language, where it means "breeze" or "light wind." The name is derived from the Spanish word "brisa," which comes from the Latin word "brisea," meaning "the northeast wind."
The name Brisa has been in use since the late Middle Ages in Spain and other Spanish-speaking regions. It was likely first used as a descriptive surname or nickname for someone who lived near the sea or in a windy area before becoming a given name.
While there are no definitive historical records of the name's earliest use, it is believed to have been popular among Spanish nobility and upper classes during the Renaissance period, as they often chose names with natural or poetic meanings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brisa is from the 16th century. Brisa de Guzmán (1520-1589) was a Spanish noblewoman and poet known for her work in the Petrarchan tradition.
In the 17th century, Brisa Velázquez (1599-1660) was a renowned Spanish painter and one of the first female artists to gain widespread recognition in Europe.
During the 18th century, Brisa Fernández (1725-1798) was a celebrated Spanish dancer and choreographer who helped popularize the art of flamenco across Europe.
In the 19th century, Brisa Montero (1835-1890) was a Cuban writer and activist who played a significant role in the Cuban independence movement against Spanish colonial rule.
More recently, Brisa Carrillo (1914-2002) was a Mexican actress and singer who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout her career.
While the name Brisa has been primarily used in Spanish-speaking countries, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in Latin America and among Hispanic communities in the United States.
People
Brisa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brisa 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
Brisa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brisa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,329 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brisa 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 41,152 US residents.
Is Brisa a common name?
We classify Brisa as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,468 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brisa most popular?
The single biggest year for Brisa was 2010, when 653 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brisa is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brisa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,578 people with the name Brisa, or 2.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,964 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 Brisa 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 Brisa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,586 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 Brisa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brisa is Hispanic at 94.6%. The next largest groups are White (3.9%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Brisa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Brisa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.6% (7,170 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 Brisa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brisa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brisa 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 Brisa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brisa 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 Brisa 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 Brisa?
You can see how many Americans are named Brisa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.