Brown
#7,760 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Brown has been given to 1,482 babies in the U.S. since 1881. In 2025 it ranked #7,760 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 55 recorded.
Babies named Brown, 2025
1 in 332,000
Brown over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Brown?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 332,000
- 10 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 171,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #7,760
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 229,791 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Brown sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Brown. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Browns were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Brown was born before 1924 — so the typical Brown is around 101 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1910s
- 21.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 3.0%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 245
- People you could plausibly meet
1910s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (320).
Is Brown rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 18.2%
- Peak was 1918 (55)
- Years since peak
- 107
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 35.1% average annual change
Spellings of Brown
Brown is not the most common spelling — Brian is, with 59.6% against Brown's 0.08%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Brown is used
Across 1910–2025, Brown was most concentrated in Tennessee — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 118,385 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Tennessee1 in 50,000
- 2Alabama1 in 100,000
- 3Georgia1 in 100,000
- 4Kentucky1 in 100,000
- 5Mississippi1 in 100,000
- 6North Carolina1 in 100,000
- 7South Carolina1 in 100,000
- 8Arkansas1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Brown has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Brown around the world
Where Brown ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- France2018–2018#6,255in 2018
Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.
Brown by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Brown
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Brown
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.