Bradley
Masculine · “broad clearing”
Bradley is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 313,008 boys against 1,949 girls since 1880. See Bradley as a girl name
Bradley began as a description of a landscape: a broad clearing in the woods, a name given to dozens of villages across England before anyone thought to give it to a child. From those places it became a surname, and from the surname a first name, carried into American use in the great nineteenth-century fashion for family names moved to the front. Two even syllables, one sound each, and the short form waiting inside it.
How old is the name Bradley?
Bradley was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bradley alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 280,000 people named Bradley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bradley most popular?
Bradley peaked in 1970, reaching #47 nationally. Today it ranks #403, 356 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Bradley appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From brād lēah (Old English: broad clearing) to Bradley
The story of Bradley
The English landscape is full of Bradleys: settlements named for a wide clearing in woodland, recorded in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and beyond. Families who came from such a place took the place as their name, and Bradley became a widespread English surname. In Britain and then in the United States, surnames of this shape moved steadily into first-name use through the nineteenth century, often beginning as a mother's maiden name handed to a son. Bradley has been on the American record continuously ever since, rising through the middle of the twentieth century and easing back since.
Meaning
broad clearing, broad meadow
From Old English brād 'broad' and lēah 'wood, clearing, meadow' — the same lēah that ends Ashley, Shirley and Beverley.
How the name formed
- brād lēahOld English: broad clearing
- BradleyEnglish place name
- BradleyEnglish surname
- Bradleygiven name
Pronouncing Bradley
BRAD-lee
Stress on the first syllable. Two syllables, no silent letters, and no competing pronunciation in English.
Nicknames for Bradley
High
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
- 19887,017 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #47reached in 1970
- Change vs 2022
- −16.6%794 in 2025, from 952
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.
Bradley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Texas.
Bradleys among us
people named Bradley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,151 born in 2025 was named Bradley
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 Melvin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bradley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melvin climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melvin's path sketches the road Bradley is walking now.
Bradley 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
Where Bradley is headed
Bradley is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bradley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bradley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and said the way it looks — rarely misheard on a phone or over a counter.
- Comes with Brad, a short form so established it has long stood alone as a name.
- An unbroken presence in the American record since the earliest years of national name-keeping.
- Traceable to real English places, so the meaning is documented rather than guessed at.
- Its strongest years are behind it, so a boy named Bradley today will more often share the name with adults than with classmates. That can be a plus or a mismatch, depending on what you want.
- Brad will arrive whether you invite it or not. Worth deciding now whether you like it, because most people will reach for it by the second week.
- Bradly and Bradlee both exist, so expect the occasional spelling check — though the -ley ending is the one people default to.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Bradley to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bradley
Masculine · #403 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bradleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 280,000 people named Bradley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bradley in 2025?
- Bradley ranks #403 among US boy names in 2025, with 794 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bradley?
- About 1 in every 2,151 US boys born in 2025 was named Bradley — 794 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bradley with classmates?
- Bradley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bradley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kyler#404 · King#405 · Kashton#400 · Kian#400 · Kylo#400 · Leandro#406 · Augustus#407 · Remy#408
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bradley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bradley and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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