Brannon
Masculine · “descendant of Branan”
Brannon is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,707 boys against 116 girls since 1880.
Bran is a raven in both Irish and Welsh, and the most famous Bran is a giant. Bran the Blessed, in the Welsh tales, orders his own head cut off and buried in London facing France, where it will guard Britain from invasion for as long as it is left undisturbed.
How old is the name Brannon?
Brannon first appears in US birth records in 1934 — 91 years ago. The typical Brannon alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 4,500 people named Brannon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brannon most popular?
Brannon peaked in 1980, reaching #718 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 5,728 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bran to Brannon
The story of Brannon
The O Branain were a Fermanagh and Roscommon family, and the surname anglicized as Brannan, Brannon and Brennan among others; the closely related O Braonain, from a different root meaning sorrow or moisture, produced Brennan as well, which is why the two are permanently confused. Meanwhile the Welsh Bran the Blessed belongs to the second branch of the Mabinogi, and the story of the buried head remained current enough that the ravens of the Tower of London are still told about in the same terms. Brannon reached American given names in the twentieth century and had its best year in 1980.
Meaning
descendant of Branan, from a word meaning raven
The Irish surname O Branain descends from Branan, a diminutive of bran, a raven. The same word appears across the Brythonic and Goidelic languages, giving Welsh Bran and Breton Bran. Ravens were birds of battle and prophecy in both traditions, which is why the word turns up so often in early names.
How the name formed
- bran
- Branan
- O Branain
- Brannon
Related forms: O Branain · Brannan · Bran
Pronouncing Brannon
BRAN-un
Two syllables with the stress on the first and the second reduced. Brannon and Brannan are identical aloud, and Brennan differs only in the first vowel.
Nicknames for Brannon
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
- 1934
- Most boys named
- 1979126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #718reached in 1980
- Change vs 2023
- +18.2%13 in 2025, from 11
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.
Brannon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Branain in Irish — related form
- Brannan in English — spelling variant
- Bran in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, Texas, Alabama.
Brannons among us
people named Brannon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Brannon
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 Daryn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brannon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Daryn climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Daryn's path sketches the road Brannon is walking now.
Brannon 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
Brannon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brannon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Irish meaning and a memorable Welsh legend behind the word.
- The raven is a strong, specific image that needs no explaining.
- Fits the current American taste for Br- surname names exactly.
- Brennan, Brannan and Brannon are constantly confused with one another.
- The short form Bran is also an English word for cereal husks.
- It reads as a name of the 1980s and 1990s in American ears.
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What they receive
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Brannon
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brannons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Brannon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brannon in 2025?
- Brannon ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brannon?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Brannon — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brannon with classmates?
- Brannon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brannon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brannon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brannon and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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