British
A name of English origin referring to an inhabitant of Great Britain.
Name Census estimates that about 316 living Americans carry the first name British. It is a predominantly female name (90.5% of registrations). The average person named British today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of British births was 1989 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for British. 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
316
~ 1 in 1,084,666 Americans
Peak year
1989
21 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2020 SSA rank
#12,304
Tracked since 1969
Census
British in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 355 people with the first name British, which placed it at #26,287 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
#26,287
National first-name rank
People counted
355
355 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for British
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named British is Black at 78.3%. The next largest groups are White (8.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 British 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 British at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.3% · 278
- White8.5% · 30
- Two or more races5.9% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for British
British leans heavily female at 90.5% of total registrations, but 31 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
British as a male name
- Ranked #12,304 in 2020
- 5 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1989 (6 births)
British as a female name
- Ranked #13,729 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows British on both sides of the split. Of the 362 people counted with this name, 97 were male (26.8%) and 265 were female (73.2%).
Popularity
British: popularity over time
The SSA tracks British from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 108 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, British remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
British 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 British during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Britishs live
Origin
Meaning and history of British
British is not a traditional given name derived from any specific language or culture. It is an English word that refers to someone or something associated with the island of Great Britain or the United Kingdom. As such, there is no known historical origin or etymology for British as a personal name.
The word British itself comes from the ancient Celtic term Pritani or Pretani, which was used to describe the inhabitants of the British Isles. This term was later adopted by the Romans, who referred to the islands as Britannia. Over time, the word evolved into its modern English form, British.
While British is not a traditional given name, there have been a few notable individuals throughout history who have been known by this moniker. One example is British Bulldog, the ring name of wrestler Davey Boy Smith (1962-2002), who was born in Golborne, England.
Another individual known as British was British Wogan (1925-2016), a British television presenter and broadcaster best known for his work on BBC Radio 2 and his long-running chat show Wogan.
In the realm of sports, British Batchelor (1896-1978) was a British tennis player who competed in the early 20th century and was a member of the British Davis Cup team.
British N'yo (born 1984) is a British-Cameroonian professional basketball player who has played in several European leagues and represented Great Britain's national team.
British Xena (born 1989) is a British drag queen and reality television personality who appeared on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019.
It is worth noting that while these individuals were known by the moniker British, it is unlikely that this was their legal given name at birth. Rather, it was likely a nickname or stage name adopted later in life to reflect their British heritage or association with the United Kingdom.
People
British + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with British 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
British: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named British?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 316 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for British 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 1,084,666 US residents.
Is British a common name?
We classify British as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 325 babies have been registered with this name.
When was British most popular?
The single biggest year for British was 1989, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living British is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was British in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 355 people with the name British, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,287 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 British 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 British?
The 2020 Census sex table shows British on both sides of the split. Of the 362 people counted with this name, 97 were male (26.8%) and 265 were female (73.2%). 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 British?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named British is Black at 78.3%. The next largest groups are White (8.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 British most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named British in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.3% (278 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 British in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is British a female name?
Yes, 90.5% of people registered as British 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 British still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded British 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 British 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 British?
Want to know how many people have the name British? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.