Bryn
Masculine · “hill”
Bryn is given to both — 1,329 boys and 7,532 girls since 1880. See Bryn as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Bryn is Welsh for a hill, and it is a plain noun rather than a name. Bryn Mawr means big hill, and a Pennsylvania railway station took the phrase in 1869; the college beside it kept it, and most Americans now meet the word as a place in Philadelphia.
How old is the name Bryn?
Bryn first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Bryn alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,200 people named Bryn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bryn most popular?
Bryn peaked in 1986, reaching #1588 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 5,215 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bryn to Bryn
The story of Bryn
Welsh naming draws on landscape vocabulary freely, and short topographic words such as bryn, glyn and nant are all used as names. Bryn Mawr in Wales gave its name to a Pennsylvania estate and then to a railway station on the Main Line in 1869; the women's college founded there in 1885 fixed the phrase in American usage. As a given name Bryn reached American records in the twentieth century, and it is used for both sexes; the male side peaks in 1986 and is the smaller of the two, since the sound reads as feminine to American ears and Brynn is the spelling that has taken hold for girls.
Meaning
hill
Welsh bryn, a hill or hillock, an ordinary noun in the language. It appears in Bryn Mawr, big hill, and in dozens of Welsh place names. As a personal name it is used in Wales for both sexes, more often for men, and it is also a short form of longer names such as Brynmor.
How the name formed
- bryn
- Bryn
Related forms: Bryn · Brynn · Brynmor
Pronouncing Bryn
BRIN
One syllable with a short i. Welsh y in a monosyllable is that vowel, not the long i an English reader might try.
Nicknames for Bryn
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
- 1947
- Most boys named
- 198942 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1588reached in 1986
- Change vs 2024
- −7.7%12 in 2025, from 13
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.
Bryn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bryn in Welsh — same name
- Brynn in English — spelling variant
- Brynmor in Welsh — related form
Bryns among us
people named Bryn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Bryn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Bryn
- #6803
- Bryn on the 2025 chart
- #909
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Bryn went to 12 boys in 2025, but Brynn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 909th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,894 places above the chart.
- Bryn12
- Brynn7
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 142,340 for Bryn 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 Nobuo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bryn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nobuo climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nobuo's path sketches the road Bryn is walking now.
Bryn 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
Bryn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bryn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Welsh meaning that is a single ordinary word.
- One syllable and four letters, impossible to misspell.
- Marks a Welsh heritage clearly and without explanation.
- In the United States it is now read as a woman's name.
- Brynn is the spelling that has taken hold for girls.
- English readers may try a long i on first sight.
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What they receive
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Bryn
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bryns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Bryn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Bryn?
- Bryn is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Brynn.
- How popular is the name Bryn in 2025?
- Bryn ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bryn?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Bryn — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bryn with classmates?
- Bryn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bryn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bryn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bryn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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