Brendan
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Old Irish name, from Brénainn; often linked to Celtic roots meaning 'prince' or 'descendant of Braonán'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/bɹɛndən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Brendan is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Ireland it is the 85th most common given name.
- IEIreland≈1 in 872(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 1.1K
- NLNetherlands1 in 27K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Brendan itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #306 (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 644 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 872 (inferred from the name graph)
642,620 named Brandon, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Brandon in US United States, GB United Kingdom, CA Canada and 2 more.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Old Irish name, from Brénainn; often linked to Celtic roots meaning 'prince' or 'descendant of Braonán'.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Brendan counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #118 | 642,620as Brandon | 1 in 518 | 641K | Brandon | 644 |
| GB United Kingdom | #279 | ≈25,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.6K | 7 | Brandon | 287 |
| CA Canada | #209 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | 5 | Brandon | 326 |
| AU Australia | #144 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | 103 | Brendan | 295 |
| ZA South Africa | #267 | ≈18,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.1K | — | Brandon | 139 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 6,539as Brandon | 1 in 780 | 6.5K | — | 3 |
| IE Ireland | #85 | ≈5,900 est. | ≈1 in 872 | 25 | Brendan | 173 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 649 | 1 in 27K | 5.3K | Brandon | 107 |
642,620 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Brendan is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Irish, ‘prince’; an early Irish name associated with St Brendan of Birr and St Brendan the Navigator.
as a nameIrish first names
In French, Origine celtique, signifie « corbeau ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Irish: from the old Irish personal name Bréanainn , derived from a Celtic element meaning ‘prince’. This was the name of two 6th-century Irish saints, Brendan the Voyager and Brendan of Birr. According to legend, the former was the first European to set foot on North American soil. The modern Irish Gaelic form Breandán and the Anglicized Brendan are based on the medieval Latin form Bredanus .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- James Connollyb. 1868USnot in their usual nameAmerican triple jumper (1868-1957)
- Brendan Behanb. 1923IEIrish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright (1923-1964)
- Jim Bolgerb. 1935NZnot in their usual namePrime Minister of New Zealand from 1990 to 1997
- James Pattersonb. 1947USnot in their usual nameAmerican author
- Pierce Brosnanb. 1953IEnot in their usual nameIrish actor (born 1953)
- Brendan Gleesonb. 1955IEIrish actor
- Brendan Eichb. 1961USAmerican computer programmer and technology executive
- Brendan Fraserb. 1968USCanadian-American actor (born 1968)
- Brendan Rodgersb. 1973GBNorthern Irish association football manager
- Brendan Cowellb. 1976AUAustralian actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 72 sources across 42 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 85K | #617 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 449 | #3,427 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 284 | #617 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 195 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 2004 | 98 | #92 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 2002 | 60 | — |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 43 | #3,663 |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 25 | #220 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 17 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2008 | 8 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2009 | 7 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 5 | #795 |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Brendan a male or female name?
- Brendan is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Brendan mean, and where does it come from?
- Old Irish name, from Brénainn; often linked to Celtic roots meaning 'prince' or 'descendant of Braonán'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- In which country does Brendan have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 643 thousand people named Brandon, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Brendan?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 649 people named Brendan, about 1 in 27 thousand residents.
- How common is Brendan compared with other names?
- In the United States, Brendan is the 118th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- What are other forms of the name Brendan?
- In the etymology graph, Brendon, Brenden and Breandán are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Brendan?
- A machine transcription gives /bɹɛndən/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Brendan?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/brendanThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Brendan” — the 118th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.