Bray
Masculine · “hill”
Bray is given to both — 747 boys and 61 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Bray is a place before it is a person — a town on the Irish coast south of Dublin, a village on the Thames in Berkshire, and a scatter of smaller ones in Cornwall and Normandy. The word behind most of them is a hill.
How old is the name Bray?
Bray first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Bray is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Bray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bray most popular?
Bray peaked in 2025, reaching #2765 nationally. Today it ranks #2765, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From brí to Bray
The story of Bray
Brí is an ordinary Old Irish word for a hill and it names dozens of places; Bray in Wicklow is the one that grew large enough to be widely known. In Norman England and France a separate bray meant marshy ground, and it produced its own surnames. Both crossed to America, and Bray became a given name there in the recent wave of short, blunt surname-names — Beck, Cade, Rhodes, Bray. It has also lately been read backwards, as the front half of Brayden, which arrived first and made the syllable familiar.
Meaningscholars disagree
hill — in the Celtic reading
The Irish Bray is Bré, from brí, 'hill', and Cornish bre carries the same sense; those are documented. The Berkshire Bray has been read differently, with a Norman French bray, 'mud' or 'marsh', proposed for it and for the French places of the name. Two unrelated words, both real, both feeding surnames that reached America — and the spelling does not tell you which one a given family carried.
How the name formed
- brí
- Bré
- Bray
Related forms: Bré · Bre
Pronouncing Bray
BRAY
One syllable, rhyming with day. There is nothing ambiguous in it, in English or in Irish.
Nicknames for Bray
Limited
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
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 202446 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2765reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%46 in 2025, from 46
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.
Bray in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bré in Irish — related form
- Bre in Cornish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Brays among us
people named Bray are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was named Bray
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 Everton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bray's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Everton climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Everton's path sketches the road Bray is walking now.
Bray 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 Bray is headed
Bray looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 24% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Bray beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bray 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 four letters, said correctly by everyone at first sight.
- A genuine place-name and surname in three countries rather than an invented sound.
- Pairs well with a longer surname, as most one-syllable first names do.
- Bray is what a donkey does, and the joke will be made at some point in every school.
- It is now heard by many people as a shortening of Brayden rather than as a name of its own.
- One syllable leaves nothing to shorten and no formal version to grow into.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Bray to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Bray? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bray
Masculine · #2765 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Bray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bray in 2025?
- Bray ranks #2765 among US boy names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bray?
- About 1 in every 37,132 US boys born in 2025 was named Bray — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bray with classmates?
- Bray will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bray
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stephon#2765 · Jafet#2765 · Dwight#2765 · Sheldon#2765 · Mills#2765 · Asante#2765 · Arlin#2765 · Yandel#2765
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bray? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bray 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.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle