Brigitte
Feminine · “the exalted one”
Brigitte is the French spelling of a name that reached France from Sweden rather than from Ireland — which is unexpected, since the name began in Ireland. A fourteenth-century Swedish saint carried it across Europe on her own account.
How old is the name Brigitte?
Brigitte first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Brigitte alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 8,700 people named Brigitte are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brigitte most popular?
Brigitte peaked in 1960, reaching #550 nationally. Today it ranks #2859, 2,309 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Brigit to Brigitte
The story of Brigitte
The name belonged first to an Irish goddess and then to Saint Brigid of Kildare. Irish monks carried it to the continent, where it took root in Sweden — and Birgitta of Sweden, a fourteenth-century mystic who founded her own order and is now one of the patron saints of Europe, made it a continental name in its own right. German and French received it from her rather than from Ireland. Brigitte became a common French name in the twentieth century and reaches United States records from French and German families and from parents who met the French form directly.
Meaning
the exalted one
Old Irish Brigit is built on brigh, 'power, strength, vigor', with a suffix making it superlative — the high one. The reading is well supported. Swedish took the name as Birgitta, German as Brigitta, French as Brigitte; each spelling records a different stage of the journey rather than a different meaning.
How the name formed
- Brigit
- Birgitta
- Brigitta
- Brigitte
Related forms: Bríd · Birgitta · Brigitta · Bridget · Brigida
Pronouncing Brigitte
bree-ZHEET
Two syllables in French with the stress on the second and a soft zh in the middle. American English usually says brih-JIT, with an English j — and both are widely heard here.
Nicknames for Brigitte
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 1960314 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #550reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- +1.7%59 in 2025, from 58
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.
Brigitte in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bríd in Irish — related form
- Birgitta in Swedish — same name
- Brigitta in German — same name
- Bridget in English — same name
- Brigida in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Brigittes among us
people named Brigitte are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,242 born in 2025 was named Brigitte
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Brigitte
- #2859
- Brigitte on the 2025 chart
- #877
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Brigitte went to 59 girls in 2025, but Briggitte is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 83, which makes it the 877th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,982 places above the chart.
- Brigitte59
- Briggitte24
About 1 girl in 19,365 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 27,242 for Brigitte itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sammie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brigitte's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sammie climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sammie's path sketches the road Brigitte is walking now.
Brigitte 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 Brigitte is headed
Brigitte should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Brigitte beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brigitte in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented name with two distinct sainthoods and a genuinely long European record.
- Britt and Gitte are established short forms in Scandinavian and German use.
- Recognized across French, German, Swedish, Irish and English at once.
- The French and American pronunciations are noticeably different and both are in use.
- Brigitte, Bridget, Brigit and Birgitta all circulate and look unrelated on paper.
- It carries a strong mid-century French flavor, which reads as either stylish or dated.
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What they receive
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Brigitte
Feminine · #2859 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brigittes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Brigitte are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Brigitte?
- Brigitte is the most-used spelling in US records — 59 of the 83 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Briggitte.
- How popular is the name Brigitte in 2025?
- Brigitte ranks #2859 among US girl names in 2025, with 59 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brigitte?
- About 1 in every 27,242 US girls born in 2025 was named Brigitte — 59 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brigitte with classmates?
- Brigitte will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brigitte
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emilly#2859 · Pyper#2859 · Amarie#2859 · Luci#2859 · Issa#2859 · Azaliah#2859 · Malinda#2859 · Kyah#2859
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brigitte? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brigitte and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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