Briseis
Feminine · “Daughter of Briseus”
Briseis is the woman at the center of the Iliad's first quarrel, and the poem is honest about what she is: a prize taken in a raid, given to Achilles, seized by Agamemnon, and the cause of the wrath the whole epic is about. She speaks fewer than twenty lines.
How old is the name Briseis?
Briseis first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Briseis is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,400 people named Briseis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Briseis most popular?
Briseis peaked in 2006, reaching #1988 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 3,422 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Brisēis to Briseis
The story of Briseis
The Iliad opens with Agamemnon forced to give up Chryseis and taking Briseis from Achilles in compensation; Achilles withdraws from the fighting, and the Greeks are nearly destroyed. She reappears to mourn Patroclus, and her lament — that he had promised she would be Achilles' wife — is one of the few moments the poem gives her a voice. Later authors from Ovid to modern novelists have expanded her considerably. The name was not used as a personal name in antiquity and its American record is entirely modern, appearing in the 1990s and peaking in 2006, in the same period as a general revival of classical names for girls.
Meaning
Daughter of Briseus
Greek Brisēis is a patronymic — the daughter of Briseus — rather than a name in the modern sense; Homer calls her that throughout and later sources give her a personal name, Hippodameia. The formation is settled; the meaning of Briseus itself is not recoverable. The same construction gives Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, the other captive woman in the same quarrel.
How the name formed
- Brisēis
- Briseis
Related forms: Βρισηΐς · Briseis
Pronouncing Briseis
bry-SAY-iss
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the ei separated into two sounds — the Greek marks it with a diaeresis. English speakers commonly say BREE-says or bri-SEE-iss, and there is no settled American saying.
Nicknames for Briseis
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 2006100 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1988reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −23.3%23 in 2025, from 30
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.
Briseis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Βρισηΐς in Greek — transliteration
- Briseis in Latin — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Briseiss among us
people named Briseis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Briseis
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 Tamarah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Briseis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tamarah climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tamarah's path sketches the road Briseis is walking now.
Briseis 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
Briseis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Briseis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the oldest and most consequential figures in European literature.
- Bri works as a completely ordinary short form.
- It is genuinely rare without being invented.
- There is no agreed pronunciation, and bearers will get several.
- The name is a patronymic, so it names her father rather than her.
- Her story in the Iliad is one of captivity, which is a heavy inheritance.
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What they receive
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Briseis
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Briseiss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Briseis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Briseis in 2025?
- Briseis ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Briseis?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Briseis — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Briseis with classmates?
- Briseis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Briseis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Kathia#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Briseis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Briseis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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