Brylan
A modern combination name blending "Bryan" and "Ian".
Name Census estimates that about 1,292 living Americans carry the first name Brylan. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Brylan today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brylan births was 2012 (105 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brylan. 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.
Key insights
- • Brylan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 265,290 Americans
Peak year
2012
105 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,457
Tracked since 1994
Census
Brylan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,021 people with the first name Brylan, which placed it at #12,243 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
#12,243
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,021 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brylan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brylan is White at 58.4%. The next largest groups are Black (24.5%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Brylan 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 Brylan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.4% · 596
- Black or African American24.5% · 250
- Two or more races7.6% · 78
- Hispanic or Latino6.8% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Brylan
Brylan leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 77 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Brylan as a male name
- Ranked #3,457 in 2024
- 33 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (93 births)
Brylan as a female name
- Ranked #16,930 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 2008 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brylan leans strongly male. 915 people counted with this name were male (89.5%), compared with 107 female bearers (10.5%).
Popularity
Brylan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brylan 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 695 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
Brylan 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 Brylan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Brylans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Brylan, while Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brylan
The given name Brylan is a relatively modern invention, with its origins rooted in the late 20th century. While the exact source and coining of the name remain unclear, it is believed to be a blend of two more established names: Bryan and Dylan.
Bryan is a masculine name of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic word "brían," meaning "strong" or "virtuous." This name has a long and storied history, with records of its use dating back to the 5th century. In medieval times, it was popularized by figures such as the Irish king and patron saint, Brian Boru, who ruled from 976 to 1014.
Dylan, on the other hand, is a Welsh name derived from the elements "dylan," meaning "great tide" or "great sea," and "llan," meaning "land" or "territory." The name gained prominence in the literary world through the famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who lived from 1914 to 1953.
The blending of these two names, resulting in Brylan, likely emerged in the late 20th century as a means of creating a unique and distinctive moniker. While the name itself does not appear to be associated with any specific historical figures or events, its components carry rich cultural and linguistic heritage.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brylan can be found in the United States, where a few individuals bearing this name were born in the latter part of the 20th century. Among them are Brylan Guzman, an American musician and songwriter born in 1989, and Brylan McCoy, a former American football player born in 1993.
Other notable individuals with the name Brylan include Brylan Barr, a Canadian actor and model born in 1996, and Brylan Landers, an American professional basketball player born in 1997. Additionally, Brylan Shalander, a Canadian ice hockey player born in 2001, has also gained recognition in his sport.
While the name Brylan may be relatively new and its historical significance limited, its unique blend of linguistic and cultural elements has contributed to its growing popularity in recent decades, particularly in North America and other English-speaking regions.
People
Brylan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brylan 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
Brylan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brylan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,292 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brylan 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 265,290 US residents.
Is Brylan a common name?
We classify Brylan as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,304 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brylan most popular?
The single biggest year for Brylan was 2012, when 105 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brylan is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brylan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,021 people with the name Brylan, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,243 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 Brylan 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 Brylan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brylan leans strongly male. 915 people counted with this name were male (89.5%), compared with 107 female bearers (10.5%). 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 Brylan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brylan is White at 58.4%. The next largest groups are Black (24.5%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Brylan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brylan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.4% (596 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 Brylan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brylan a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Brylan 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 Brylan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brylan 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 Brylan 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 Brylan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.