Boy · Irish, from Welsh
Brendan
Say it: BREN-dun
Meaning
From Irish Bréanainn, probably borrowed from Welsh brenhin 'prince, king'.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Borne by the 6th-century voyager saint, it spread from Ireland to the US and became popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1990s
In the United States
- 90,857 babies given this name since 1912
- At its height in 1999, about 1 in 481 boys
- 342 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Brendon, Brandan
| Irish | Bréanainn |
|---|---|
| Latin | Brandanus |
Famous bearers
- St Brendan the Navigator, Irish abbot
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- The Irish annals and early Irish 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.