Brant
Masculine · “firebrand”
Brant is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 9,569 boys against 10 girls since 1880.
Brant is a Germanic name with fire in it — the word behind it named a burning brand, a piece of wood pulled from the hearth — and it is also, quite separately, the English name of a small sea goose.
How old is the name Brant?
Brant first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Brant alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 8,700 people named Brant are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brant most popular?
Brant peaked in 1970, reaching #518 nationally. Today it ranks #3314, 2,796 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From brand to Brant
The story of Brant
Germanic naming used brand freely — Hildebrand, Brandolf — and it survived into English as Brant and Brand. The word's double sense, a burning stick and a blade, is old and deliberate: a sword catching the light was described that way in Norse and Old English verse. The name has been in American use since the nineteenth century, both as a surname taken in front and directly from the Germanic form.
Meaningscholars disagree
firebrand, sword
The Germanic element brand named a burning stick and, by an old metaphor, a sword. Separately the English word brant or brent names a small dark goose, and English surnames were made from both; a third line takes it from a place name meaning steep.
How the name formed
- brand
- Brant
Related forms: Brand · Brantley · Brandt
Pronouncing Brant
BRANT
One syllable. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Brant
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 1978228 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #518reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −14.6%35 in 2025, from 41
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.
Brant in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Brand in German — related form
- Brantley in English — related form
- Brandt in Dutch — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Michigan, Ohio.
Brants among us
people named Brant are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 48,802 born in 2025 was named Brant
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 Rayford test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brant's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rayford climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rayford's path sketches the road Brant is walking now.
Brant 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 Brant is headed
Brant is easing off slowly — about 26% 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.
Brant beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brant in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and five letters, easy to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- A documented Germanic element with an unusually vivid image behind it.
- It has been in American records for well over a century.
- Brandt, Brant and Brent are all close enough to be written for one another.
- The bird sense is real and birdwatchers will mention it.
- A one-syllable name gives little room for a nickname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Brant
Masculine · #3314 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brants are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Brant are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brant in 2025?
- Brant ranks #3314 among US boy names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brant?
- About 1 in every 48,802 US boys born in 2025 was named Brant — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brant with classmates?
- Brant will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brant
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 Brant? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brant and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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