Meaning not yet researched.
Bret: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 20 in 2025. Its best rank was #170 in 1959.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #170 in 1959; #4,883 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Bret in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#4,883 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 1959, at #170.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Bret: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 20 boys in 2025. Peak: #170 in 1959 · most boys in one year: 1,839 (1959).
In 2025, 20 US boys were named Bret, making it the 4,883rd most common boys’ name of the year, down 157 places from #4,726 in 2024. That is 1 fewer than the 21 boys named Bret in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #170, reached in 1959. That year also had the most boys given the name: 1,839. For comparison, it was #3,378 in 2015 and #1,233 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Bret in 86 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1926 with 5 babies. In all, 30,051 US babies have been given the name, 0.8% of them girls and 99% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1960s, with 8,420 babies named Bret.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 241 US boys were named Bret; the busiest of those years was 2018, with 34. In 2025 that was about 1 in 85,404 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Brett (162,513 babies since 1880), Brent (140,366 babies since 1880), Brad (83,293 babies since 1880) and Britt (7,626 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Briton are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Briton (554).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Bret in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 20 | #4,883 |
| 2024 | — | — | 21 | #4,726 |
| 2023 | — | — | 27 | #4,017 |
| 2022 | — | — | 23 | #4,456 |
| 2021 | — | — | 22 | #4,513 |
| 2020 | — | — | 17 | #5,275 |
| 2019 | — | — | 21 | #4,660 |
| 2018 | — | — | 34 | #3,307 |
| 2017 | — | — | 23 | #4,345 |
| 2016 | — | — | 33 | #3,369 |
| 2015 | — | — | 33 | #3,378 |
| 2014 | — | — | 45 | #2,669 |
| 2013 | — | — | 39 | #2,898 |
| 2012 | — | — | 42 | #2,820 |
| 2011 | 6 | #15,161 | 72 | #1,931 |
| 2010 | — | — | 89 | #1,716 |
| 2009 | — | — | 96 | #1,641 |
| 2008 | — | — | 123 | #1,380 |
| 2007 | 7 | #14,172 | 109 | #1,465 |
| 2006 | — | — | 99 | #1,519 |
| 2005 | 7 | #13,240 | 151 | #1,094 |
| 2004 | — | — | 160 | #1,022 |
| 2003 | — | — | 171 | #956 |
| 2002 | 7 | #12,408 | 189 | #869 |
| 2001 | — | — | 246 | #714 |
| 2000 | 8 | #10,884 | 274 | #657 |
| 1999 | 6 | #12,921 | 335 | #580 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,381 | 305 | #605 |
| 1997 | 10 | #8,438 | 285 | #614 |
| 1996 | 12 | #7,197 | 350 | #544 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,301 | 388 | #519 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,044 | 414 | #494 |
| 1993 | 9 | #8,816 | 405 | #507 |
| 1992 | — | — | 463 | #468 |
| 1991 | — | — | 516 | #434 |
| 1990 | 5 | #13,233 | 546 | #418 |
| 1989 | 5 | #12,626 | 545 | #398 |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,186 | 487 | #410 |
| 1987 | 13 | #5,636 | 536 | #365 |
| 1986 | 13 | #5,482 | 509 | #366 |
| 1985 | 11 | #6,069 | 502 | #365 |
| 1984 | 5 | #10,610 | 458 | #381 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,272 | 504 | #352 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,358 | 1,098 | #217 |
| 1981 | 12 | #5,600 | 532 | #342 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,570 | 410 | #400 |
| 1979 | — | — | 490 | #359 |
| 1978 | — | — | 381 | #396 |
| 1977 | — | — | 415 | #385 |
| 1976 | — | — | 505 | #341 |
| 1975 | — | — | 462 | #359 |
| 1974 | — | — | 509 | #342 |
| 1973 | — | — | 541 | #322 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,413 | 628 | #293 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,476 | 734 | #284 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,435 | 871 | #260 |
| 1969 | — | — | 791 | #264 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,101 | 841 | #246 |
| 1967 | — | — | 837 | #243 |
| 1966 | — | — | 860 | #243 |
| 1965 | — | — | 743 | #274 |
| 1964 | — | — | 786 | #275 |
| 1963 | — | — | 787 | #274 |
| 1962 | — | — | 787 | #274 |
| 1961 | — | — | 741 | #284 |
| 1960 | — | — | 1,242 | #223 |
| 1959 | — | — | 1,839 | #170 |
| 1958 | — | — | 1,514 | #187 |
| 1957 | — | — | 194 | #556 |
| 1956 | — | — | 81 | #831 |
| 1955 | — | — | 91 | #763 |
| 1954 | — | — | 82 | #795 |
| 1953 | — | — | 55 | #968 |
| 1952 | — | — | 48 | #1,045 |
| 1951 | — | — | 25 | #1,490 |
| 1950 | — | — | 34 | #1,233 |
| 1949 | — | — | 25 | #1,466 |
| 1948 | — | — | 19 | #1,709 |
| 1947 | — | — | 28 | #1,397 |
| 1946 | — | — | 12 | #2,158 |
| 1945 | — | — | 10 | #2,266 |
| 1944 | — | — | 8 | #2,657 |
| 1943 | — | — | 12 | #2,189 |
| 1941 | — | — | 9 | #2,507 |
| 1940 | — | — | 10 | #2,343 |
| 1926 | — | — | 5 | #4,276 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).