Brenden
Masculine · “prince”
Brenden is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 25,715 boys against 42 girls since 1880.
Brenden is Brendan respelled, and the saint behind it is the one who is said to have sailed west into the Atlantic in a leather boat and found an island that later maps kept showing.
How old is the name Brenden?
Brenden first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Brenden alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 25,000 people named Brenden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brenden most popular?
Brenden peaked in 1999, reaching #242 nationally. Today it ranks #2884, 2,642 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Where it comes from
From Bréanainn to Brenden
The story of Brenden
Brendan the Navigator was a sixth-century Irish abbot, and the medieval Voyage of Saint Brendan — an account of a seven-year sea journey to the Land of Promise — was one of the most copied texts in Europe. Saint Brendan's Isle appeared on Atlantic charts into the eighteenth century. The name came to America with Irish emigration, and the -en spelling peaked in the late 1990s.
Meaningscholars disagree
prince, chieftain
From the Irish Bréanainn, which is generally taken from a Welsh or Brittonic word meaning 'prince' rather than from Irish at all. The reading is not secure; a connection to a word for a raven or for stench has also been proposed. The Welsh route is the commonest account.
How the name formed
- Bréanainn
- Brendan
- Brenden
Related forms: Breandán · Brendan · Brendon
Pronouncing Brenden
BREN-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first. All three spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Brenden
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
- 1956
- Most boys named
- 20001,394 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #242reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −20.4%43 in 2025, from 54
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.
Brenden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Breandán in Irish — related form
- Brendan in English — spelling variant
- Brendon in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Georgia.
Brendens among us
people named Brenden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 39,723 born in 2025 was named Brenden
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 Darrel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brenden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darrel climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darrel's path sketches the road Brenden is walking now.
Brenden 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 Brenden is headed
Brenden is easing off slowly — about 33% 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.
Brenden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brenden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented sixth-century abbot with one of the great medieval travel narratives attached.
- The prince reading is attractive and is the standard account.
- Two firm syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Brendan is the standard spelling and the two are constantly confused.
- The meaning is not securely established.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in this spelling.
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What they receive
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Brenden
Masculine · #2884 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brendens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 25,000 people named Brenden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brenden in 2025?
- Brenden ranks #2884 among US boy names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brenden?
- About 1 in every 39,723 US boys born in 2025 was named Brenden — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brenden with classmates?
- Brenden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brenden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kamal#2884 · Blu#2884 · Rafi#2884 · Minh#2884 · Shaquille#2884 · Arnav#2884 · Jayven#2884 · Hiro#2884
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brenden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brenden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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