Britt
Masculine · “exalted one”
Britt is given to both — 4,710 boys and 2,916 girls since 1880. See Britt as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Britt is Swedish and has nothing to do with Britain. It is the short form of Birgitta, the name of Sweden's patron saint, and it has been an ordinary Scandinavian name for centuries. Brittany is French and comes from the Britons — the two are unrelated, and in America they have been quietly merging for fifty years.
How old is the name Britt?
Britt first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Britt alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 4,000 people named Britt are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Britt most popular?
Britt peaked in 1960, reaching #654 nationally. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Brigid to Britt
The story of Britt
Bridget of Sweden, a fourteenth-century noblewoman who founded a religious order and was made a patron saint of Europe, carried the Irish name in its Swedish form and made it one of the most-used names in Scandinavia. Britt is its ordinary short form there and a full name in its own right. It reached America with Scandinavian emigration, and then, from the nineteen-eighties, the Brittany family arrived from an entirely different direction and produced the same short form — which is why an American Britt may be Swedish or may be French and cannot be told apart.
Meaningscholars disagree
exalted one
Birgitta is the Swedish form of the Irish Brigid, whose name is generally read from a Celtic root meaning high or exalted — the same root behind the goddess Brigid and, at a distance, the English word bright. That reading is standard and not fully demonstrated. Britt and Britta are the Scandinavian short forms. None of this connects to Britannia, which is a separate word with a separate history.
How the name formed
- Brigid
- Birgitta
- Britta
- Britt
Related forms: Britta · Brit · Brighid
Pronouncing Britt
BRIT
BRIT, one syllable, rhyming with sit. Swedish says it the same way. There is no ambiguity in the spelling and there never has been in either language.
Nicknames for Britt
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
- 1886
- Most boys named
- 1967123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #654reached in 1960
- Change vs 2021
- +72.7%19 in 2024, from 11
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.
Britt in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Britta in Swedish — related form
- Brit in Norwegian — same name
- Brighid in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia.
Britts among us
people named Britt 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
Britt 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
- It is a complete Scandinavian name rather than a shortening of anything English.
- One syllable, five letters, and impossible to mispronounce.
- It works for either child, and the record shows both in America.
- Most Americans will assume it is short for Brittany, which is a different name with a different origin.
- The single syllable against a short surname lands abruptly.
- It leans to boys, but a real share of children with this spelling are girls, so forms will sometimes guess wrong.
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What they receive
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Britt
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Britts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,000 people named Britt are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Britt in 2025?
- Britt is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Britt with classmates?
- Britt 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 Britt? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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