Brian

Where Brian comes from

Borrowed from Irish Brian. Doublet of Brendan.
— Wiktionary's entry for Brian
  • Irish
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1909
    First appearance
    #1,440 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1940
    Brian David Josephson born
    Welsh physicist
  3. 1947
    Brian May born
    British musician
  4. 1972
    Peak, #8
    36,306 babies named Brian — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1989
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #24.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Irish.
Namesakes
  • Brian May · British musician, born 1947
  • Brian David Josephson · Welsh physicist, born 1940
  • Brian Schmidt · American-born Australian astrophysicist, born 1967
  • Brian De Palma · American filmmaker, born 1940
  • Brian Wilson · American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, 1942–2025

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.