Brydon
English given name originating from an Old English surname meaning "town on a hill".
Name Census estimates that about 528 living Americans carry the first name Brydon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brydon today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brydon births was 2014 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brydon. 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 Brydon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
528
~ 1 in 649,156 Americans
Peak year
2014
34 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,581
Tracked since 1991
Census
Brydon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 545 people with the first name Brydon, which placed it at #19,414 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
#19,414
National first-name rank
People counted
545
545 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brydon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brydon is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (8.8%). 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 Brydon 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 Brydon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.1% · 371
- Black or African American11.2% · 61
- Two or more races8.8% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 7
Popularity
Brydon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brydon from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 227 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
Brydon 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 Brydon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brydons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Ohio, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Brydon, while Texas, California, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brydon
The name Brydon is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "bry" and "dun," which together mean "hill dweller" or "one who lives on a hill." This name has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon culture of the early medieval period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
Brydon was primarily used as a surname in its early history, with records of the name appearing in various English parishes and counties from the 13th century onwards. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is found in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273, which mentions a Willelmus de Brydon in Lincolnshire.
As a given name, Brydon first gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in Scotland and Northern England. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Brydon was Brydon Traherne, a Welsh author and scholar born in 1782.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Brydon. In the 19th century, Brydon Nicholson (1818-1875) was a British soldier who served in the First Anglo-Afghan War and was instrumental in the defense of Jalalabad. Another notable bearer of the name was Brydon Coverdale (1856-1936), an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England in the late 19th century.
In the 20th century, Brydon Baker (1913-2002) was a British author and journalist who wrote extensively on nature and wildlife. Brydon Parnell (1922-2012) was a New Zealand cricketer who played for the national team in the 1940s and later became a cricket administrator.
Additionally, Brydon Coverdale (1936-2013) was an Australian actor and playwright, known for his work in television and theatre productions. He was a recipient of the Order of Australia for his contributions to the arts.
While the name Brydon is not extremely common, it has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly in the British Isles and countries with strong historical ties to England and Scotland.
People
Brydon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brydon 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
Brydon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brydon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 528 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brydon 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 649,156 US residents.
Is Brydon a common name?
We classify Brydon as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 534 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brydon most popular?
The single biggest year for Brydon was 2014, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brydon is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brydon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 545 people with the name Brydon, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,414 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 Brydon 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 Brydon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brydon leans strongly male. 537 people counted with this name were male (96.9%), compared with 17 female bearers (3.1%). 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 Brydon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brydon is White at 68.1%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (8.8%). 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 Brydon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brydon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.1% (371 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 Brydon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brydon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brydon 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 Brydon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brydon 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 Brydon 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 Brydon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.