Humanverse

Breanna vs Brendalee

American parents have registered 82,440 Breannas since 1880, against 425 Brendalees. Breanna is still ahead, with 69 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Breanna against Brendalee, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Breanna Brendalee

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 70 years in which either name was published, Breanna for 55 years and Brendalee for 15 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Breanna Brendalee
Total US births 82,440425
Most in one year 4,70124
Babies in 2025 69under 5
Estimated living today 81,000390
Median age today 2745
Peak year 19961960
Best rank 74th girls2,432nd girls
Rank in 2025 2,542ndunranked
First recorded 19651949
Girls / boys 82,375 / 65425 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Brendalees alive today are over 45; half the Breannas are over 27. That is 18 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Breanna and Brendalee.