Brien
Recorded 1925–2025 · United States
Brien was most popular in 1963, when 99 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,809 that year. In 2025 it ranked #20,040, with 7 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 3,593 people named Brien.
Brien over time
How old is the name Brien?
Brien first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1925, which makes it about 100 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 86 of the 101 years since.
How many people are named Brien?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 3,593 American births named Brien 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 3,100 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Brien in 2025?
7 American babies were named Brien in 2025, ranking #20,040 that year.
Is Brien getting more or less popular?
Brien is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 6 births a year across 2021–2025 against 10 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
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.
Is Brien a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Brien is a boy’s name — 0.1% of the 3,593 Americans given it were girls and 99.9% 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.
How old is someone named Brien?
Roughly 3,100 Americans named Brien are alive today — 86% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 50 years old, and half are between 36 and 61.
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.
Where Brien is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Brien on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org