Brynden
Of Welsh origin meaning "hill summit, high ridge."
Name Census estimates that about 273 living Americans carry the first name Brynden. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Brynden today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Brynden births was 2005 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Brynden. 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.
People living today
273
~ 1 in 1,255,510 Americans
Peak year
2005
19 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2019 SSA rank
#10,989
Tracked since 1987
Census
Brynden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 286 people with the first name Brynden, which placed it at #30,451 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
#30,451
National first-name rank
People counted
286
286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brynden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brynden is White at 66.8%. The next largest groups are Black (14.7%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Brynden 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 Brynden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.8% · 191
- Black or African American14.7% · 42
- Two or more races8.7% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 3
Popularity
Brynden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Brynden from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 127 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Brynden remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Brynden 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 Brynden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Brynden
The name Brynden is of Welsh origin, derived from the elements "bryn" meaning "hill" and "den" meaning "man." It is believed to have emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, when Welsh names were becoming more widespread.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brynden can be found in the 14th century Welsh prose tale "Culhwch and Olwen," which is part of the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh medieval literature. In this tale, a character named Brynden appears as one of King Arthur's warriors.
Brynden was a relatively uncommon name throughout history, but there have been a few notable individuals who bore this name. One of the earliest recorded was Brynden Montgomery, a 15th century Welsh landowner and soldier who fought in the Wars of the Roses. Another Brynden of note was Brynden Jones (1618-1692), a Welsh clergyman and author who wrote several works on theology and philosophy.
In the 19th century, Brynden Kerfoot (1814-1904) was a Welsh-born American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1867 to 1871. Around the same time, Brynden Powell (1831-1904) was a notable Welsh artist and painter known for his landscapes and portraits.
A more recent figure was Brynden Trevathan (1917-1986), an American author and playwright who wrote several novels and plays, including the award-winning "The Yeoman's Tale" in 1958.
While not a common name in modern times, Brynden has maintained a niche presence, particularly in Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom, where it serves as a connection to Welsh heritage and culture.
People
Brynden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Brynden 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
Brynden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Brynden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 273 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Brynden 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 1,255,510 US residents.
Is Brynden a common name?
We classify Brynden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 277 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Brynden most popular?
The single biggest year for Brynden was 2005, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Brynden is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Brynden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 286 people with the name Brynden, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,451 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 Brynden 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 Brynden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Brynden leans strongly male. 262 people counted with this name were male (91.0%), compared with 26 female bearers (9.0%). 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 Brynden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Brynden is White at 66.8%. The next largest groups are Black (14.7%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Brynden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Brynden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.8% (191 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 Brynden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Brynden a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Brynden 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 Brynden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Brynden 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 Brynden 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 Brynden?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.