How popular is the baby name Brian in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Brian.

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Popularity of the baby name Brian


Posts that mention the name Brian

Popular baby names in Ireland, 2015

Flag of Ireland
Flag of Ireland

According to data from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO), the most popular baby names in Ireland in 2015 were Emily and Jack.

Here are Ireland’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emily, 626 baby girls
2. Emma, 449
3. Ava, 421
4. Sophie, 407
5. Amelia, 400
6. Ella, 384
7. Lucy, 379
8. Grace, 367
9. Chloe, 362
10. Mia, 360		1. Jack, 752 baby boys
2. James, 697
3. Daniel, 617
4. Conor, 558
5. Sean, 530
6. Adam, 449
7. Noah, 438
8. Michael, 434
9. Charlie, 399
10. Luke, 382

Here are some quick comparisons between these rankings with the 2014 rankings…

New to the top 10:

  • Girl names: Chloe (replaced Aoife, now ranked 13th)
  • Boy names: Michael (replaced Harry, now tied for 14th with Cian)

New to the top 100:

  • Girl names: Maisie, Annabelle, Mila, Rosie, and Eimear
  • Boy names: Lorcan, George, Daithi, Brian, Edward, and Daire

Biggest increases within the top 100:

  • Girl names (by rank): Mila, Fiadh, Maisie, Annabelle, and Alice
  • Girl names (by raw numbers): Fiadh, Roisin, Robyn, Sadie, and Chloe
  • Boy names (by rank): Ollie, Donnacha, Billy, Tadhg, and Brian/Daire (tied)
  • Boy names (by raw numbers): Oliver, Michael, Fionn, Tadhg, and Finn

And finally, some of the “less common” (non-top 100) baby names mentioned in the CSO’s statistical release:

  • Girl names: Paris, Nelly, Dakota, Kim, Pixie, and Sabina
  • Boy names: Barra, Pauric, Zayn, Gus, Romeo, and Otis

Source: Irish Babies’ Names 2015 – CSO

Image: Adapted from Flag of Ireland (public domain)

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. Non-Biblical

How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?

This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.

First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.

For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. non-Biblical.
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
  • Biblical names: Adam, Alexander, Andrew, Austin (via Augustus), Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elijah, Ethan, Jack (via John), Jackson (via John), Jacob, James, Jason, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Justin (via Justus), Lucas, Mark, Matthew, Michael, Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Thomas, Timothy, Zachary
  • Non-Biblical names: Aiden, Albert, Anthony, Arthur, Billy, Brandon, Brian, Charles, Christopher, Dennis, Donald, Dylan, Edward, Eric, Frank, Gary, George, Harold, Harry, Henry, Jayden, Jeffrey, Kenneth, Kevin, Larry, Liam, Logan, Louis, Mason, Raymond, Richard, Robert, Ronald, Ryan, Scott, Tyler, Walter, William
  • Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)

It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.

Here are the year-by-year tallies:

YearTop 20 names
given to…		# Biblical# Non-Biblical
191440% of baby boys5 (25%)15 (75%)
192443% of baby boys6 (30%)14 (70%)
193443% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
194447% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
195446% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
196442% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
197438% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
198436% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
199427% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
200419% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
201414% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)

But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.

By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:

Biblical names (49)Non-Biblical names (51)
Noah, Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James, Daniel, Elijah, Benjamin, Matthew, Jackson (via John), David, Lucas, Joseph, Andrew, Samuel, Gabriel, Joshua, John, Luke, Isaac, Caleb, Nathan, Jack (via John), Jonathan, Levi, Jaxon (via John), Julian (via Julius), Isaiah, Eli, Aaron, Thomas, Jordan, Jeremiah, Nicholas, Evan, Josiah, Austin (via Augustus), Jace (via Jason), Jason, Jose, Ian, Adam, Zachary, Jaxson (via John), Asher, Nathaniel, Justin (via Justus), JuanLiam, Mason, William, Logan, Aiden, Jayden, Anthony, Carter, Dylan, Christopher, Oliver, Henry, Sebastian, Owen, Ryan, Wyatt, Hunter, Christian, Landon, Charles, Connor, Cameron, Adrian, Gavin, Robert, Brayden, Grayson, Colton, Angel, Dominic, Kevin, Brandon, Tyler, Parker, Ayden, Chase, Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Blake, Cooper, Lincoln, Xavier, Bentley, Kayden, Carson, Brody, Ryder, Leo, Luis, Camden

(Christian, Angel, Xavier, Dominic…all technically non-Biblical, despite having strong ties to Christianity.)

50%-50% isn’t quite as extreme as 70%-30%, but it’s still noticeably more Biblical than 1914’s 25%-75%.

Do any of these results surprise you?

Baby born to Everton F.C. fans, named Elliott Francis Cain (“EFC”)

Everton F.C. logo
Everton F.C. logo

Ready for another soccer-inspired baby name?

In December of 2012, Katie Brown and her partner Brian welcomed a baby boy at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in Liverpool, England. They’re big fans of Everton Football Club, so they named their son Elliott Francis Cain, initials E.F.C., in honor of the club.

I’m not sure if “Cain” is a middle name or a surname, but while searching for clues I did happen to find a photo of Elliott Francis Cain (EFC) cupcakes. :)

Speaking of yummy things, one nickname for Everton F.C. is “The Toffees.”

Rival team Liverpool, which inspired a pair of Norwegian parents to name their daughter Ynwa back in 2010, goes by “The Reds.”

Source: Mersey mum gives birth to baby blue Elliott Francis Cain on Christmas Day

Image: Adapted from Everton F.C. logo (fair use)

How did the O. J. Simpson trial influence baby names in the mid-1990s?

O. J. Simpson trial witness Kato Kaelin
Kato Kaelin

In June of 1994, former NFL star Orenthal James “O. J.” Simpson was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and Nicole’s friend Ron.

The heavily publicized murder trial began early the next year. Simpson was finally acquitted on October 3, 1995 — nineteen years ago today.

Believe it or not, the trial had an impact on U.S. baby names in the mid-1990s.

In March of 1995, memorable witness Brian “Kato” Kaelin — who had been living on Simpson’s property at the time of the murders — took the stand. (His nickname came from the Green Hornet character.)

While the usage of Kato did not see a large increase in usage, both the male and female usage of Kaelin spiked in 1995:

Kaelin (m)Kaelin (f)Kato
1997441206
19966511815
1995121†16013
1994638910
199312386
†Peak usage
O. J. Simpson trial witness Arnelle Simpson
Arnelle Simpson

In July of 1995, Arnelle Simpson — O. J.’s adult daughter with his first wife, Marguerite — was called as the first witness for the defense.

Both the name Arnelle and the variant spelling Arnell saw higher usage that year as a result:

ArnelleArnell
1997107
19962813
199551†21
1994165
1993..
†Peak usage

Simpson’s defense attorney, Robert Kardashian, did not influence names in the 1990s…but his daughters and ex-wife would go on to influence U.S. baby names in multiple ways after becoming reality TV stars in the 2000s.

Sources: O. J. Simpson murder case – Wikipedia, SSA