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Girl · Old Norse or Irish
Brenda
Say it: BREN-duh
Meaning
Uncertain. Possibly a feminine from Old Norse brandr 'sword' in Shetland, or from Irish Bréanainn (Brendan).
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Spread after Walter Scott used it in The Pirate (1822); very popular in the US from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1950s
In the United States
- 609,651 babies given this name since 1897
- At its height in 1950, about 1 in 82 girls
- 177 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Famous bearers
- Brenda Lee, American singer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.