Popularity of the name Brenda, 1897–2025

Brenda was at its most popular in 1950, when 20,799 girls were given the name: about 1 in 82 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #14. In 2025, 139 girls were named Brenda, ranking #1,525. In all, Social Security counts 608,478 girls named Brenda since 1897. Social Security’s records also list 2,119 boys named Brenda.

Peak year

1950

Rank in 1950

#14

Babies in 1950

20,799

Rank in 2025

#1,525

Total since 1897

608,478

Where it stands now

Over the last ten years it has slipped from #805 in 2015 to #1,525 in 2025, with 349 girls named Brenda in 2015 and 139 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Brenda ranked highest in the 1950s, at #18, with 209,241 girls given the name that decade. It ranked #2,358 in the 1890s and #1,272 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 32 in 1920 (#1,407), 5,442 in 1940 (#42), 23,963 in 1960 (#13), 2,648 in 1980 (#115), 1,898 in 2000 (#172) and 180 in 2020 (#1,261).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 24,339, in 1957. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more girls for 1957 than for 1950, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank in any year was #11, first reached in 1961.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1897 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Brenda, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.