Brad
Masculine · “broad clearing”
Brad is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 83,060 boys against 233 girls since 1880.
Brad is the front half of Bradley, and Bradley is a description of a field: broad clearing. It is one of hundreds of English surnames that began as directions for finding a place.
How old is the name Brad?
Brad was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Brad alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 71,000 people named Brad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brad most popular?
Brad peaked in 1975, reaching #98 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 4,151 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Brad appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From brad + leah to Brad
The story of Brad
Bradley began as a place name in several English counties, became a surname for the families who came from those places, and crossed into given-name use in America in the twentieth century — the same path Ashley, Shirley and Leslie took. Bradley rose sharply in the 1950s and 1960s, and Brad rose with it, registered on its own from the 1950s and peaking in the mid-1970s.
Meaning
broad clearing
From the Old English brad, 'broad', and leah, 'clearing' or 'woodland glade'. The leah element is among the commonest in English place names — it appears in Leigh, Ashley, Shirley, Beverley and hundreds more — because a clearing was where people actually settled.
How the name formed
- brad + leah
- Bradley
- Brad
Related forms: Bradley · Bradd
Pronouncing Brad
BRAD
One syllable. Said the same way in every English accent.
Nicknames for Brad
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19612,501 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #98reached in 1975
- Change vs 2023
- −14.3%24 in 2025, from 28
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Brad in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bradley in English — related form
- Bradd in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Brads among us
people named Brad are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Brad
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brad's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roland climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roland's path sketches the road Brad is walking now.
Brad 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Brad beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brad in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Bradley stands behind it as a formal form with a documented English place-name origin.
- One syllable, blunt and completely unambiguous.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, which most surname-names cannot manage.
- Given outright it stays informal, with nothing longer on the certificate.
- It is closely associated with the 1970s and 1980s in American records.
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What they receive
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Brad
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brads are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 71,000 people named Brad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brad in 2025?
- Brad ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brad?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Brad — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brad with classmates?
- Brad will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brad
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brad? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brad and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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