Brody
Masculine name of Celtic origin meaning "ditch" or "ridge".
Name Census estimates that about 79,589 living Americans carry the first name Brody. It sits at #224 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brody today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brody births was 2008 (6,319 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brody. 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 Brody with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Brody is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 282 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Brody is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
80K
~ 1 in 4,307 Americans
Peak year
2008
6,319 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#224
Tracked since 1954
Census
Brody in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 67,103 people with the first name Brody, which placed it at #752 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
#752
National first-name rank
People counted
67K
67,103 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
22.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brody
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brody is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Brody 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 Brody at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.7% · 58,856
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 3,921
- Two or more races4.3% · 2,868
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 553
- Black or African American0.8% · 505
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 400
Gender
Gender distribution for Brody
Out of the 80,456 babies given the name Brody since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Brody as a male name
- Ranked #224 in 2024
- 1,608 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (6,299 births)
Brody as a female name
- Ranked #8,624 in 2022
- 12 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2007 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brody appears almost entirely male. Of the 67,093 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Brody: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brody from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 37,375 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brody 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 Brody during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brodys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Brody, while District of Columbia, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,542 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brody
The name Brody has its origins in the Irish language and culture. It is believed to have derived from the Old Irish word 'brod', which means 'pride' or 'arrogance'. The name is thought to have emerged as a surname during the Middle Ages, likely referring to a person with a proud or haughty demeanor.
In its earliest recorded instances, the name was spelled as 'Brod' or 'Broddy'. Over time, the spelling evolved to the more modern 'Brody'. The name gained popularity in Ireland and Scotland, where it was often associated with families of Celtic descent.
While there are no known references to the name Brody in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been documented in various historical records dating back to the 16th century. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name was Brody O'Rourke, an Irish chieftain who lived in the late 1500s.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Brody. One of the most famous was Sir John Brody (1624-1696), an English politician and member of Parliament during the reign of King Charles II. Another prominent individual was Brody Benton (1780-1842), an American politician and soldier who served in the War of 1812.
In the realm of literature, Brody Fairchild was the name of a character in the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book, published in 1925, is considered a classic of American literature.
Other notable individuals with the name Brody include Brody Wilkinson (1822-1891), a British explorer and naturalist who travelled extensively in Africa, and Brody Jenner (born 1983), an American television personality and socialite.
While the name Brody was historically more common among Irish and Scottish families, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions in recent times. However, this historical account focuses solely on the origins and early documented instances of the first name Brody.
People
Brody + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brody 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
Brody: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brody?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 79,589 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brody 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 4,307 US residents.
Is Brody a common name?
We classify Brody as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 80,456 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brody most popular?
The single biggest year for Brody was 2008, when 6,319 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brody is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brody in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 67,103 people with the name Brody, or 22.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #752 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 Brody 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 Brody?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brody appears almost entirely male. Of the 67,093 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Brody?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brody is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Brody most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brody in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.7% (58,856 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 Brody in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brody a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Brody 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 Brody still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brody 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 Brody 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 have the name Brody?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.