Brigham
Masculine · “homestead by the bridge”
Brigham is the settlement by the bridge — an English place name from brycg and ham, and the surname of the man who led the Mormon migration west.
How old is the name Brigham?
Brigham first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Brigham alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 3,300 people named Brigham are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brigham most popular?
Brigham peaked in 2011, reaching #1257 nationally. Today it ranks #1886, 629 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From brycg ham to Brigham
The story of Brigham
Brigham Young led the Latter-day Saints from Illinois to the Salt Lake valley in 1847 and governed the territory for a decade; the university at Provo is named for him. The surname entered given-name use chiefly among Mormon families, and it appears in the American registers in current use.
Meaning
homestead by the bridge
From the Old English brycg, 'bridge', and ham, 'homestead' or 'village'. Brigham in Cumberland and Yorkshire preserve it. Both elements are ordinary and the compound is transparent and undisputed.
How the name formed
- brycg ham
- Brigham
Related forms: Briggam · Bridgeham
Pronouncing Brigham
BRIG-um
Two syllables, stress on the first. The h is silent, as in most English -ham place names.
Nicknames for Brigham
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 2011137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1257reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- +25.8%83 in 2025, from 66
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.
Brigham in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Briggam in English — spelling variant
- Bridgeham in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah, Texas, Arizona.
Brighams among us
people named Brigham are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,579 born in 2025 was named Brigham
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 Parth test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brigham's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Parth climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Parth's path sketches the road Brigham is walking now.
Brigham 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 Brigham is headed
Brigham is easing off slowly — about 16% 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.
Brigham beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brigham in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The bridge-homestead meaning is concrete and belongs to a real family of place names.
- A consequential figure in American religious history carries it.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The Mormon association is strong and specific.
- The Ham clipping is unfortunate as an English word.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Brigham
Masculine · #1886 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brighams are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Brigham are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brigham in 2025?
- Brigham ranks #1886 among US boy names in 2025, with 83 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brigham?
- About 1 in every 20,579 US boys born in 2025 was named Brigham — 83 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brigham with classmates?
- Brigham will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brigham
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adolfo#1886 · Wolf#1886 · Kyron#1886 · Xylo#1886 · Mayer#1886 · Hussein#1886 · Camdyn#1886 · Rakan#1886
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brigham? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brigham and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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