Humanverse

Brett vs Brexley

American parents have registered 162,513 Bretts since 1880, against 596 Brexleys. Brett is still ahead, with 144 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brett Brexley

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

Brett has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1926 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Brett had 221 and Brexley had 89.

Side by side

  Brett Brexley
Total US births 162,513596
Most in one year 4,90490
Babies in 2025 14424
Estimated living today 149,000590
Median age today 405
Peak year 19862018
Best rank 69th boys2,302nd girls
Rank in 2025 1,382nd5,238th
First recorded 19262015
Girls / boys 3,404 / 159,109537 / 59

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 Bretts alive today are over 40; half the Brexleys are over 5. That is 35 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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