Brea
Feminine
Brea is a trimming of Brianna in most American use, and it is also the Spanish word for tar — which is why the famous tar pits in Los Angeles are called La Brea, meaning, redundantly, the tar.
How old is the name Brea?
Brea first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Brea alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 5,700 people named Brea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brea most popular?
Brea peaked in 1993, reaching #771 nationally. Today it ranks #3067, 2,296 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Brea
Our story of Brea includes a small joke that Los Angeles has been telling for a century. The La Brea tar pits are, translated, the the-tar tar pits — Spanish named the place for what was in it, English added its own noun without checking, and the redundancy has been official on maps ever since. The same thing happened to the River Avon, which is river-river, and to Sahara Desert, which is desert-desert. Whether this name has anything to do with the Spanish word is very doubtful. But it is standing next to one of the great examples of a whole language forgetting what a word means and saying it twice.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Two unrelated roads. Brea functions as a short form of Brianna and Breanna, whose root is Irish bri, 'force, significance', and which has no settled reading of its own. Spanish brea means tar or pitch, from a Germanic word, and it names places in California and Spain. Nothing establishes which road a given Brea took, and the Spanish word is almost certainly not the intended one.
Pronouncing Brea
BRAY-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first. BREE-ah, with a long e, is also widely heard and follows Brianna more closely; both circulate in American use and neither is standard.
Nicknames for Brea
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 1993268 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #771reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- +3.9%53 in 2025, from 51
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.
Brea in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bria in English — spelling variant
- Brianna in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Breas among us
people named Brea are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 30,326 born in 2025 was named Brea
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 Hollis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brea's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hollis climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hollis's path sketches the road Brea is walking now.
Brea 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 Brea is headed
Brea is easing off slowly — about 21% 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.
Brea beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brea in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, and easy for a small child to say and write.
- Brianna stands behind it as a full formal name if one is wanted.
- Short and open, which pairs well with a long or complicated surname.
- The two pronunciations both circulate, so the child will be correcting people.
- Brea, Bria, Bree and Brie are all in use and none is standard.
- In Spanish the word means tar, which Spanish speakers will notice.
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What they receive
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Brea
Feminine · #3067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Breas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Brea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brea in 2025?
- Brea ranks #3067 among US girl names in 2025, with 53 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brea?
- About 1 in every 30,326 US girls born in 2025 was named Brea — 53 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brea with classmates?
- Brea will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brea
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Xitlaly#3067 · Finlee#3067 · Evany#3067 · Stacey#3067 · Mahnoor#3067 · Fabiola#3067 · Anissa#3067 · Melodi#3067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brea? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brea and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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