Brit
Masculine · “From the surname Britt or Britton”
Brit is given to both — 628 boys and 147 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Brit is a one-syllable name, cut for boys from surnames like Britton and Britt and given to a real minority of girls as well. It is also an old sailors' word, and Herman Melville gave it a chapter of its own.
How old is the name Brit?
Brit first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Brit alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 600 people named Brit are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brit most popular?
Brit peaked in 1970, reaching #2058 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Britto to Brit
The story of Brit
Brit was a whalers' word for the tiny drifting sea creatures that right whales strain from the water, and chapter fifty-eight of Moby-Dick is titled 'Brit', describing the whales mowing through yellow meadows of it. The surname Britton, meaning a Briton or a Breton, gave the name its other road: Nathaniel Lord Britton, a Columbia botanist, founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx in 1891 and ran it for more than thirty years. As a first name Brit was given mostly to boys in the twentieth century, with a real minority of girls.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the surname Britt or Britton, 'a Briton or Breton'
For boys Brit usually comes from surnames meaning a Briton or Breton; for girls it may come from the Scandinavian Britt. The record holds both under one spelling.
How the name formed
- Britto
- Britton
- Brit
Related forms: Britt · Britton · Breton
Pronouncing Brit
BRIT
One syllable.
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
- 1921
- Most boys named
- 197019 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2058reached in 1970
- Change vs 2015
- −16.7%5 in 2020, from 6
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.
Brit in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Britt in English — spelling variant
- Britton in English — related form
- Breton in French — related form
Brits among us
people named Brit are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Brit sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, strong and simple to spell.
- Works for either child in the record.
- Rare as a given name.
- Brit is everyday slang for a British person, which will come up constantly.
- Britt with two t's is the spelling people expect, especially for girls.
- Most children with this spelling are boys, but a real minority are girls; either may be taken for the other.
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What they receive
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Brit
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Brits are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Brit are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brit in 2025?
- Brit is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Brit with classmates?
- Brit will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Brian#339 · Benjamin#11 · Brandon#261 · Bryan#336 · Bruce#536 · Billy#1068 · Bobby#1097 · Bradley#403
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brit? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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