Brave
Masculine · “courageous”
Brave is given to both — 508 boys and 160 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Brave is the English word, used as a name. Its history is more interesting than its meaning: it arrived in English from Italian and Spanish, where it had meant wild and untamed before it meant courageous.
How old is the name Brave?
Brave first appears in US birth records in 2008 — 17 years ago. The typical Brave is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Brave are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brave most popular?
Brave peaked in 2021, reaching #2499 nationally. Today it ranks #3181, 682 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bravo to Brave
The story of Brave
The word entered English in the sixteenth century with its Romance ambiguity intact — Elizabethan writers use brave to mean splendid and showy as often as courageous. It settled into its modern meaning over the following century. Its life as a given name is recent and American, and it belongs to the group of virtue and quality names — Brave, True, Justice, Legend — that have appeared in the records over the last two decades.
Meaning
courageous
From French brave, from Italian and Spanish bravo, which carried senses of wild, fierce and untamed before settling on courageous; the same word gives English bravo and bravado.
How the name formed
- bravo
- brave
Related forms: Bravo · Bravo · Brave
Pronouncing Brave
BRAYV
One syllable. There is no other way to say it.
Nicknames for Brave
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
- 2008
- Most boys named
- 202254 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2499reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- +2.8%37 in 2025, from 36
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.
Brave in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bravo in Italian — related form
- Bravo in Spanish — related form
- Brave in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Braves among us
people named Brave are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 46,164 born in 2025 was named Brave
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 Dene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brave's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dene climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dene's path sketches the road Brave is walking now.
Brave 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 Brave is headed
Brave should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Brave beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brave in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, five letters, and never mispronounced or misspelled.
- The word's history — from wild to courageous — is genuinely worth telling.
- It sits in a recognized American group of quality names rather than standing alone.
- It names a quality the child has not chosen, and a frightened child carrying it feels the gap.
- In American English the word is also an outdated term for a Native American warrior, and that association is not neutral.
- A one-syllable quality name gives very little room to hide behind on a bad day.
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What they receive
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Brave
Masculine · #3181 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Braves are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Brave are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brave in 2025?
- Brave ranks #3181 among US boy names in 2025, with 37 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brave?
- About 1 in every 46,164 US boys born in 2025 was named Brave — 37 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brave with classmates?
- Brave will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brave
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Diamond#3181 · Walden#3181 · Tobin#3181 · Keion#3181 · Artem#3181 · Arsh#3181 · Kris#3181 · Esau#3181
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brave? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brave and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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