Brandon

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Brendan in AU Australia, IE Ireland, NZ New Zealand and 4 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Brandon is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name692K records spelled Brandon93 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Argentina, France, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Brandón, Brändön, B'Randon, Brandön, Brándon

• a separate given name66K records spelled Brandon2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

  Also written Brandón

• Arabic given name19K records spelled Brandon11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Egypt, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia

  Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic

  Also written ברנדון, Brendon, בראנדון, Brändõn, Brândon

• Indonesian given name16K records spelled Brandon3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Brandón

• Lao given name12K records spelled Brandon23 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, United Kingdom

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written Brando, แบรนดอน, แบรนด้อน, Brandón, B'Randon

• English given name4.2K records spelled Brandon33 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Brazil

  Languages: English, Turkish, Swahili

  Also written Brendon, เบรนดอน, เบร็นดอน, Brändön

62 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Brandon is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In French, English surname/place name, from Old English brōm 'broom' + dūn 'hill'.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• Mainly North American: transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of various places so called, most of which get their name from Old English brom ‘broom’, ‘gorse’ + dain ‘hill’. In some cases it may be an altered form of Brendan. There has perhaps also been some influence from the 29 surname of the Italian American actor Marlon Brando (b. 1924).

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, An English habitational surname from Old English from any of several places of that name.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In French, Forme dérivée de Brendan; origine celtique, signifie « corbeau ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In Irish, In Kerry this is Mac Breandáin, a branch of the Fitzmaurices; elsewhere, as de Brandon, of English origin. Brendon is an occasional synonym

  as a name·The Surnames of Ireland

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 111 years between 1914–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Brandon Carterb. 1942AUAustralian physicist
• Brandon Leeb. 1965USAmerican actor (1965–1993)
• Brandon Sandersonb. 1975USAmerican fantasy writer (born 1975)
• Brandon Routhb. 1979USAmerican actor
• Brandon Hunterb. 1980USAmerican basketball player (1980-2023)
• Brandon Trostb. 1981USAmerican cinematographer, screenwriter, director, producer, and actor
• Brandon T. Jacksonb. 1984USAmerican actor, comedian and rapper
• Brandon Rushb. 1985USAmerican basketball player (born 1985)
• Brandon Flynnb. 1993USAmerican actor
• Brandon Pereab. 1995USAmerican actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,019 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Brandon?

We estimate roughly 672 thousand people bear Brandon (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Brandon have the most bearers?

We estimate about 641 thousand people bear Brandon in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled brandon.

Where is Brandon most common?

Brandon is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 519 people carrying it.

How common is Brandon compared with other names?

In the United States, Brandon is the 119th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Brandon a male or female name?

Brandon is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Brandon mean?

Recorded meaning: Person from Brandon, a place name in England; or from the French oblique case of the Germanic personal name Brando.