Brodie
A masculine name derived from the Scottish Gaelic word "bruaidh" meaning "ridge".
Name Census estimates that about 11,254 living Americans carry the first name Brodie. It is a predominantly male name (95.8% of registrations). The average person named Brodie today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brodie births was 2008 (722 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brodie. 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 Brodie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brodie is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 492 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 30,456 Americans
Peak year
2008
722 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#963
Tracked since 1912
Census
Brodie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,323 people with the first name Brodie, which placed it at #2,578 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
#2,578
National first-name rank
People counted
9.3K
9,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brodie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brodie is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.5%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Brodie 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 Brodie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 8,090
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 509
- Two or more races4.8% · 445
- Black or African American1.7% · 154
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 74
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 51
Gender
Gender distribution for Brodie
Brodie leans heavily male at 95.8% of total registrations, but 492 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Brodie as a male name
- Ranked #963 in 2024
- 233 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (693 births)
Brodie as a female name
- Ranked #9,643 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (31 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brodie leans strongly male. 8,859 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 462 female bearers (5.0%).
Popularity
Brodie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brodie from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 4,277 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Brodie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brodie 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 Brodie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brodies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. California, Texas, Alabama recorded the most babies named Brodie, while Alaska, New Mexico, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 185 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brodie
The name Brodie is of Scottish origin, derived from the Gaelic word "brod," meaning "a shaking bog" or "a small ditch." It is believed to have originally been used as a surname referring to someone who lived near a boggy area.
The earliest recorded use of the name Brodie as a first name dates back to the 16th century in Scotland. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Sir Thomas Brodie (c. 1500-1566), a Scottish landowner and courtier who served as the Master of the King's Household during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.
In the 17th century, the name gained popularity among Scottish families, particularly in the northeastern regions of the country. One notable figure from this period was Alexander Brodie (1617-1680), a Scottish philosopher and writer who authored several works on theology and philosophy.
As the name spread beyond Scotland, it also appeared in historical records in other parts of the British Isles. In England, one of the earliest recorded individuals with the name was Brodie Greville (1694-1766), a British soldier and politician who served as a Member of Parliament.
Another notable figure was Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862), an English physiologist and surgeon who made significant contributions to the field of medicine. He was elected as the President of the Royal Society in 1858.
In the United States, the name gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Steven Brodie (1870-1901), an American daredevil who gained notoriety for his alleged jump from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886.
Another prominent American with the name was Fanny Brodie (1856-1942), a writer and educator who authored several books on American history and culture, including "No Man's Land," which explored the experiences of American women during World War I.
Other notable individuals with the name Brodie include Walter Brodie (1919-2003), a British racing driver and businessman, and Fay Brodie (1917-1981), an American actress and dancer who appeared in several films and television shows during the mid-20th century.
People
Brodie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brodie 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
Brodie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brodie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,254 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brodie 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 30,456 US residents.
Is Brodie a common name?
We classify Brodie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,666 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brodie most popular?
The single biggest year for Brodie was 2008, when 722 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brodie is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brodie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,323 people with the name Brodie, or 3.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,578 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 Brodie 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 Brodie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brodie leans strongly male. 8,859 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 462 female bearers (5.0%). 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 Brodie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brodie is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.5%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Brodie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brodie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (8,090 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 Brodie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brodie a male name?
Yes, 95.8% of people registered as Brodie 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 Brodie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brodie 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 Brodie 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 share the name Brodie?
Find out how many Americans are named Brodie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.