Head to head · Boys' names
Brady vs Casey
#321 vs #320 in 2025
Casey is a whisker ahead (#320 vs #321 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Casey is back after a long quiet spell, Brady is holding its place on the charts.
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, Casey leads 5 measures of 6; Brady 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
- 1880s: Brady #711, Casey #917 — Brady higher
- 1890s: Brady #737, Casey #954 — Brady higher
- 1900s: Brady #642, Casey #856 — Brady higher
- 1910s: Brady #749, Casey #782 — Brady higher
- 1920s: Brady #815, Casey #1246 — Brady higher
- 1930s: Brady #834, Casey #1310 — Brady higher
- 1940s: Brady #789, Casey #947 — Brady higher
- 1950s: Brady #631, Casey #475 — Casey higher
- 1960s: Brady #603, Casey #364 — Casey higher
- 1970s: Brady #368, Casey #153 — Casey higher
- 1980s: Brady #294, Casey #86 — Casey higher
- 1990s: Brady #209, Casey #129 — Casey higher
- 2000s: Brady #129, Casey #281 — Brady higher
- 2010s: Brady #195, Casey #508 — Brady higher
- 2020s: Brady #302, Casey #374 — Brady higher
Brady stood higher in 10 of 15 decades; Brady has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Brady | Casey |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #711 | #917 |
| 1890s | #737 | #954 |
| 1900s | #642 | #856 |
| 1910s | #749 | #782 |
| 1920s | #815 | #1246 |
| 1930s | #834 | #1310 |
| 1940s | #789 | #947 |
| 1950s | #631 | #475 |
| 1960s | #603 | #364 |
| 1970s | #368 | #153 |
| 1980s | #294 | #86 |
| 1990s | #209 | #129 |
| 2000s | #129 | #281 |
| 2010s | #195 | #508 |
| 2020s | #302 | #374 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Brady
from the Irish byname brádach, read either as "spirited" or as "thieving, deceitful"
The surname Ó Brádaigh means "descendant of Brádach," and the byname itself is what scholars disagree about. Irish brádach has been glossed both as "spirited" and, less flatteringly, as "thieving" or "fraudulent" — bynames in medieval Ireland were often given by neighbors rather than chosen. A third reading connects it to bráighe, "throat, chest," giving something like "broad-chested." No one reading has won out.
brádach (Irish byname) → Ó Brádaigh → Brady
How it traveled
The Ó Brádaigh were a Gaelic family of Breifne, the territory covering modern Cavan and part of Leitrim, and they held land there through the medieval period as one of the region's ruling kindreds. Anglicized as Brady, the name spread widely through Ireland and then, in the nineteenth century, through the Irish emigration to the United States, where it became one of the more common Irish surnames on the continent.
Casey
vigilant, watchful
The Irish surname Ó Cathasaigh means 'descendant of Cathasach', from cathasach, 'vigilant' or 'watchful'. That is the main road into English. A second road exists for girls: Casey has also been used as a short form of names beginning with Cass- or K-sounds, and as a spelling of the initials K.C.
cathasach → Ó Cathasaigh → Casey (surname) → Casey (given name)
How it traveled
Ó Cathasaigh was a family name in Ireland long before it was anybody's first name, borne by several distinct kindreds, and it was anglicized as Casey in the nineteenth century. Irish emigration carried it to the United States, where the American habit of promoting surnames to given names took hold of it.
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
Brady
BRAY-dee
Stress on the first syllable. One pronunciation everywhere in the English-speaking world, and it matches the spelling exactly.
- B — Initial-only, used informally among friends and family; Brady is short enough that it usually travels whole.
- Brade — An informal clipping heard occasionally, more often from teammates and schoolmates than from adults.
Casey
KAY-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spellings Casey, Kasey and Kacey are all said the same way, which is convenient aloud and less so in writing.
- Case — The usual informal clip, used by family and friends rather than on paperwork.
- Cass — Heard more often for girls, where it overlaps with the short form of Cassandra and Cassidy.
- KC — A written shorthand as much as a spoken one, since the name already sounds like the two letters.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Brady if you want…
- a name holding steadyBrady is holding its place on the charts
Choose Casey if you want…
- a name on the way upup 197 places on the charts in five years
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
Brady
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and read correctly on first sight by nearly any English speaker.
- Two clear syllables with the stress up front — easy to call across a yard, easy for a small child to say.
- A documented Irish family name with an unbroken record stretching back to medieval Breifne.
To consider
- It is strongly attached to one enormously famous American athlete, and for many people that association arrives before anything else. It fades over decades, but expect a comment or two in the early years.
- The Brady Bunch keeps the surname in circulation for anyone who grew up with reruns — a mild, mostly affectionate association rather than a problem.
- One of the competing readings of the old Irish byname is "thieving" rather than "spirited." It is a nickname from a thousand years ago and carries nothing forward, but it is there if anyone goes looking.
Casey
Strengths
- Spelled and said correctly on first hearing by almost everyone in the US, with no pronunciation to teach.
- In unbroken use as a first name since the late nineteenth century, so it reads as familiar rather than new in any generation.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, and needs no adjustment if the child later prefers Case or Cass.
To consider
- Most Caseys are boys, but a real minority are girls, so strangers reading it on a list or an email will sometimes guess wrong. Families on either side of that split get used to a small correction now and then.
- Kasey and Kacey sound identical, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often — the name is well known, the spelling less automatic.
- A heavily covered American criminal trial in the early 2010s put the name in headlines for a while. That association has faded considerably, and the older ones — a railroad ballad, a baseball poem — have outlasted it.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Brady and Casey 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 Brady and Casey?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Brady and Casey — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Brady or Casey — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Brady or Casey?
- Casey, in 2025: Casey ranked #320 with 1,072 babies; Brady ranked #321 with 1,071 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Brady or Casey?
- Casey. Over the last five years Brady moved down 17 places; Casey moved up 197 places.
- Which is the older name, Brady or Casey?
- Brady entered the US charts in 1883; Casey entered the US charts in 1888. On the American record, Brady is the older name.
- How many people are named Brady and Casey?
- About 92,000 people named Brady are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 109,000 people named Casey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Bradys or Caseys in the classroom?
- Brady will almost certainly be the only one in school. Casey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Brady, Casey and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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