Branden
Masculine · “broom hill”
Branden is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 27,537 boys against 330 girls since 1880.
Branden is a hill covered in broom — the yellow-flowered shrub that gave the Plantagenets their name. Brandon is an English place name repeated across a dozen counties, and this is one of its American spellings.
How old is the name Branden?
Branden first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Branden alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 26,500 people named Branden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Branden most popular?
Branden peaked in 1987, reaching #251 nationally. Today it ranks #3314, 3,063 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Where it comes from
From brom + dun to Branden
The story of Branden
Brandon is a place name in Suffolk, Durham, Warwickshire and elsewhere, and the families from those places carried it as a surname. It crossed into American given-name use in the twentieth century and rose extremely fast through the 1970s and 1980s, reaching the top ten. The respellings followed: Branden, Brandin, Brandyn. Branden peaked in the late 1980s.
Meaningscholars disagree
broom hill
The usual reading of the place name Brandon is the Old English brom, 'broom' — the shrub — and dun, 'hill'. Some Brandons instead come from a personal name plus dun, and the Irish surname Ó Brandáin is a separate source entirely, from a word for a raven. The broom-hill reading covers most of the English places.
How the name formed
- brom + dun
- Brandon
- Branden
Related forms: Brandon · Breandán · Brandyn
Pronouncing Branden
BRAN-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Branden and Brandon are said identically.
Nicknames for Branden
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 19921,150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #251reached in 1987
- Change vs 2024
- −31.4%35 in 2025, from 51
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.
Branden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Brandon in English — spelling variant
- Breandán in Irish — related form
- Brandyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida.
Brandens among us
people named Branden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 48,802 born in 2025 was named Branden
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 Harlan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Branden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Harlan climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Harlan's path sketches the road Branden is walking now.
Branden 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 Branden is headed
Branden is easing off slowly — about 17% 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.
Branden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Branden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, and the plant behind it has a real dynastic history.
- A documented English place-name origin repeated across several counties.
- Two firm syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Brandon is far commoner and will be assumed by anyone writing the name down.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s and 1990s.
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What they receive
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Branden
Masculine · #3314 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brandens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 26,500 people named Branden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Branden in 2025?
- Branden ranks #3314 among US boy names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Branden?
- About 1 in every 48,802 US boys born in 2025 was named Branden — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Branden with classmates?
- Branden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Branden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rainier#3314 · Coulter#3314 · Caio#3314 · Kaydon#3314 · Daksh#3314 · Kree#3314 · Calen#3314 · Mathis#3314
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Branden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Branden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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