Bryn
A modern Welsh name with multiple meanings: hill, mound, ridge, promontory.
Name Census estimates that about 8,455 living Americans carry the first name Bryn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Bryn today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bryn births was 2011 (387 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bryn. 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 Bryn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.5K
~ 1 in 40,539 Americans
Peak year
2011
387 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,098
Tracked since 1947
Census
Bryn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,183 people with the first name Bryn, which placed it at #2,829 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
#2,829
National first-name rank
People counted
8.2K
8,183 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bryn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bryn is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Bryn 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 Bryn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.5% · 7,241
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 339
- Two or more races3.9% · 320
- Black or African American1.9% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 97
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 29
Gender
Gender distribution for Bryn
Bryn leans heavily female at 85.0% of total registrations, but 1,317 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Bryn as a male name
- Ranked #6,497 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (45 births)
Bryn as a female name
- Ranked #2,098 in 2024
- 91 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (370 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bryn leans strongly female. 6,880 people counted with this name were female (84.1%), compared with 1,299 male bearers (15.9%).
Popularity
Bryn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bryn from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,564 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
Bryn 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 Bryn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bryns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the most babies named Bryn, while Nevada, Kentucky, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 127 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bryn
The name Bryn originates from the Welsh language, where it means "hill" or "mound." The name dates back to the early medieval period in Wales and was often used as a topographic name, referring to someone who lived near a prominent hill or mound.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled as "Bryn" or "Brin," and it was primarily used as a masculine name. It was derived from the Welsh word "bryn," which has its roots in the Proto-Celtic word "*brinn-" meaning "hill" or "elevated place."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bryn can be found in the Welsh prose tale "Culhwch and Olwen," which dates back to the 11th century. In this tale, there is a character named Bryn Eurgrair, which translates to "Bryn of the Golden Tongue."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Bryn. One of the most famous was Bryn ap Gruffydd (c. 1286-1326), a Welsh nobleman and military leader who played a significant role in the Welsh Wars of Independence against the English.
Another prominent figure was Bryn Roberts (1870-1944), a Welsh politician and trade unionist who served as the first Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Wrexham constituency in North Wales.
In the literary world, Bryn Prys (1844-1917) was a Welsh poet and writer who is considered one of the most important figures in the revival of the Welsh language in the late 19th century.
Bryn Terfel (born 1965) is a renowned Welsh opera singer who has gained international acclaim for his performances in operas by composers such as Wagner and Puccini.
Bryn Fortey (1952-2020) was a British paleontologist and trilobite expert, known for his work on the systematics and evolutionary history of these ancient marine arthropods.
While the name Bryn has traditionally been more common in Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom, it has also gained popularity in other English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and Australia.
People
Bryn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bryn 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
Bryn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bryn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,455 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bryn 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 40,539 US residents.
Is Bryn a common name?
We classify Bryn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,755 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bryn most popular?
The single biggest year for Bryn was 2011, when 387 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bryn is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bryn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,183 people with the name Bryn, or 2.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,829 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 Bryn 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 Bryn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bryn leans strongly female. 6,880 people counted with this name were female (84.1%), compared with 1,299 male bearers (15.9%). 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 Bryn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bryn is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Bryn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bryn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.5% (7,241 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 Bryn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bryn a female name?
Yes, 85.0% of people registered as Bryn 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 Bryn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bryn 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 Bryn 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 named Bryn?
Find out how many people have the name Bryn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.