Braydan
Masculine · “Irish bradan”
Braydan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,180 boys against 10 girls since 1880.
Braden is a salmon. The Irish surname O Bradain contains bradan, a salmon, and in Irish myth the Salmon of Knowledge is the fish that has eaten the hazelnuts of wisdom. Fionn burns his thumb cooking it, sucks the burn, and receives everything the fish knew. A name that looks entirely invented is one of the oldest images in Irish literature.
How old is the name Braydan?
Braydan first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Braydan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,200 people named Braydan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Braydan most popular?
Braydan peaked in 2009, reaching #1717 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,526 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bradan to Braydan
The story of Braydan
The Salmon of Knowledge lives in a pool overhung by nine hazel trees whose nuts contain all wisdom. A poet spends seven years trying to catch it, succeeds, and gives it to his young servant to cook with instructions not to eat any. The boy burns his thumb on the fish, puts it in his mouth, and acquires the knowledge; the poet, seeing what has happened, gives him the whole salmon. The boy is Fionn mac Cumhaill, and for the rest of his life he can recover any knowledge by sucking his thumb. The salmon is a knowledge animal across the Celtic material, associated with wells, with age and with return, and the Irish surname preserves the word. That a name currently read as a modern American coinage carries it is one of the better ironies in this rank range.
Meaningscholars disagree
Irish bradan, a salmon
Braden anglicizes the Irish surname O Bradain, descendant of Bradan, from bradan, a salmon. An alternative derives it from Old English brad, broad. The salmon reading is generally preferred. Braydan is a modern American respelling using ay for the vowel and a for the reduced ending; it has no separate origin and belongs to the very large -aden rhyme family. It peaks in 2009.
How the name formed
- bradan
- Braden
- Braydan
Related forms: O Bradain · Braden · Brayden
Pronouncing Braydan
BRAY-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final vowel is fully reduced, so Braden, Brayden, Braydon and Braydan are homophones and only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Braydan
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
- 1992
- Most boys named
- 200990 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1717reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%9 in 2025, from 7
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.
Braydan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Bradain in Irish — related form
- Braden in English — spelling variant
- Brayden in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio.
Braydans among us
people named Braydan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Braydan
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 Maximino test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Braydan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maximino climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maximino's path sketches the road Braydan is walking now.
Braydan 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
Braydan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Braydan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish etymology is genuine and unexpectedly vivid.
- Bray works as a short form.
- The sound is entirely familiar in American use.
- At least five spellings of the same sound circulate.
- Brayden is the most common form.
- The rhyme family it belongs to is heavily dated to the 2000s.
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What they receive
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Braydan
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Braydans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Braydan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Braydan in 2025?
- Braydan ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Braydan?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Braydan — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Braydan with classmates?
- Braydan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Braydan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Braydan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Braydan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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