Recorded 1950–2017 · United States
Brain was most popular in 1982, when 189 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,430 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 4,606 people named Brain.
Brain first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1950, which makes it about 75 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 62 of the 76 years since. It was last recorded in 2017.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 4,606 American births named Brain between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 4,206 are estimated to be alive today.
Brain was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Brain is out of use. It averaged 7 births a year a decade ago and has not been recorded in the last five years.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Brain is a boy’s name — 0.2% of the 4,606 Americans given it were girls and 99.8% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 4,206 Americans named Brain are alive today — 91% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 47 years old, and half are between 40 and 54.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Brain on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org