Head to head · Boys' names
Bodhi vs Brandon
#265 vs #261 in 2025
Brandon is a whisker ahead (#261 vs #265 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Brandon is stepping back from its peak, Bodhi is holding its place on the charts. On momentum, Bodhi has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Brandon leads 5 measures of 6; Bodhi leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Bodhi —, Brandon #2221 — Brandon higher
- 1920s: Bodhi —, Brandon #2453 — Brandon higher
- 1930s: Bodhi —, Brandon #2541 — Brandon higher
- 1940s: Bodhi —, Brandon #1883 — Brandon higher
- 1950s: Bodhi —, Brandon #718 — Brandon higher
- 1960s: Bodhi —, Brandon #425 — Brandon higher
- 1970s: Bodhi #5829, Brandon #60 — Brandon higher
- 1980s: Bodhi —, Brandon #18 — Brandon higher
- 1990s: Bodhi #3613, Brandon #9 — Brandon higher
- 2000s: Bodhi #2047, Brandon #25 — Brandon higher
- 2010s: Bodhi #589, Brandon #85 — Brandon higher
- 2020s: Bodhi #290, Brandon #211 — Brandon higher
Brandon stood higher in every recorded decade — 12 of 12.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Bodhi | Brandon |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | — | #2221 |
| 1920s | — | #2453 |
| 1930s | — | #2541 |
| 1940s | — | #1883 |
| 1950s | — | #718 |
| 1960s | — | #425 |
| 1970s | #5829 | #60 |
| 1980s | — | #18 |
| 1990s | #3613 | #9 |
| 2000s | #2047 | #25 |
| 2010s | #589 | #85 |
| 2020s | #290 | #211 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Bodhi
- England & Wales#97
Brandon
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Bodhi
awakening, enlightenment
From the Sanskrit and Pali noun bodhi, built on the verbal root budh-, 'to wake, to know'. The same root gives bodhisattva and the Buddha's own title, 'the awakened one'.
budh- (Sanskrit root, 'to wake') → bodhi (Sanskrit and Pali noun) → Bodhi (English given name)
How it traveled
Bodhi begins as a common noun rather than a name: in Sanskrit and Pali it is the word for awakening, the state Siddhartha Gautama reached seated under a fig tree at Bodh Gaya in northern India. The tree took the word as its label, and so did related terms — bodhisattva, bodhicitta — that spread with Buddhism across Asia, surfacing as bodai in Japanese and puti in Chinese.
Brandon
the hill where broom grows
Old English brom, the yellow-flowered shrub, and dun, a hill. A few of the English Brandons have a different first element, burna, a stream, so not every Brandon on the map means the same thing.
brom → dun → Brandon
How it traveled
The English Brandons are scattered and unalike: Suffolk's is a flint town, Durham's a colliery village, Warwickshire's a hamlet by the Avon. As a surname the name crossed to America early; as a first name it was rare until the twentieth century, when it climbed steadily and then very fast.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Bodhi
BOH-dee
The 'dh' is a single Sanskrit consonant, not an English 'th' — say a plain d. Stress falls on the first syllable, and the name rhymes with 'roady'.
- Bo — The most common short form, and a long-established given name in its own right in American use.
- Bode — Informal, used within families; also exists separately as a given name.
- Bodhi-boy / Bud — Household-only affectionate forms rather than anything that follows a child to school.
Brandon
BRAN-dun
Two syllables, weight at the front, the second reduced almost to a hum. Said the same way on both sides of the Atlantic.
- Bran — Cut from the front; a standing name in Welsh and Irish story, which gives it more weight than most short forms.
- Brand — Used inside families; it is also an Old Norse name and an English surname on its own.
- B — The bare initial, used among friends and on teams where several Brandons overlap.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Bodhi if you want…
- a name on the way upup 30 places on the charts in five years
- a name that charts abroad tooBodhi is on the national lists of England & Wales
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 84% for Brandon
Choose Brandon if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsBrandon is stepping back from its peak
- a name that feels very nowBrandon is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Bodhi
Strengths
- Short, two syllables, and pronounced the way it looks once heard — no ambiguity about stress or vowels.
- Bo is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name in American use.
- The word itself has an unbroken written record of well over two thousand years in Sanskrit and Pali.
To consider
- The spelling will need repeating. Bodie, Bode and Brody are all in circulation, and the silent-h version is the one people are least likely to guess first.
- It is a term of real religious weight in Buddhism, and some families — Buddhist and not — think carefully about using a sacred word as a personal name. Worth deciding where you stand before the questions come.
- The name's wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. It reads as unmistakably of this era rather than as a name passed down, which may be exactly the point or may not.
Brandon
Strengths
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing, in almost any English-speaking country.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture: a hill covered in yellow broom.
- It has been common long enough to be entirely unremarkable, which is a strength if you want a name that does not announce itself.
To consider
- It is one of the defining names of its generation and will place a person in time for anyone who hears it.
- Brendan, Branden, Brandan and Brenden are close enough to be confused with it constantly.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls too, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Bodhi
40%chance Bodhi feels dated by 2040
Bodhi sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Brandon
84%chance Brandon feels dated by 2040
Brandon is coming down from a big peak (#6 in 1992). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Bodhi and Brandon in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Bodhi and Brandon?
Put both to the vote.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Boho names for free spirits
- Star Wars names in the American record
- Names ending in -i
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- all guides
Where Bodhi and Brandon each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Bodhi or Brandon — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Bodhi or Brandon?
- Brandon, in 2025: Brandon ranked #261 with 1,326 babies; Bodhi ranked #265 with 1,301 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Bodhi or Brandon?
- Bodhi. Over the last five years Bodhi moved up 30 places; Brandon moved down 96 places.
- Which is the older name, Bodhi or Brandon?
- Bodhi entered the US charts in 1976; Brandon entered the US charts in 1914. On the American record, Brandon is the older name.
- How many people are named Bodhi and Brandon?
- About 14,000 people named Bodhi are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 741,000 people named Brandon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Bodhis or Brandons in the classroom?
- Bodhi will almost certainly be the only one in school. Brandon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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