Boys' name · peaked in 1959
Bret name popularity since 1925
30,051 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Bret (0.8% girls, 99.2% boys). Half of them were born in 1973 or earlier, so the typical Bret is about 53 years old in 2026. Bret peaked in 1959 as the #170 name for boys, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.
Key facts
- US babies since 1925
- 30,051
- Named Bret, 1925–2025
- In 2025
- Not top 1,000
- #4,883 for boys in 2025
- Girls / boys
- 99.2% boys
- 232 girls · 29,819 boys
- Most popular in
- Utah
- 4.22× its national share
Peak year is the year Bret made up the largest share of US boys, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.
Bret births per year, 1925–2025
1959 was the biggest year for Bret both by count and as a share of all babies.
- Fastest rise: Between 1957 and 1962, Bret became 4.2× more common, from 1 in 11,100 baby boys to 1 in 2,630.
- Steepest fall: Between 1959 and 1964, its share of baby boys fell by 54%, from 1 in 1,160 to 1 in 2,540.
Shaded on the chart. Both compare Bret's share of all US boys five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Bret.
Decade by decade
Babies named Bret in each decade, and its rank among boys' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).
| Decade | Girls | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925–29 | 0 | 5 | – |
| 1930s | 0 | 0 | Under 5 |
| 1940s | 0 | 133 | #2,266 |
| 1950s | 0 | 3,963 | #763 |
| 1960s | 5 | 8,415 | #274 |
| 1970s | 18 | 5,536 | #359 |
| 1980s | 90 | 5,581 | #365 |
| 1990s | 84 | 4,007 | #519 |
| 2000s | 29 | 1,618 | #1,094 |
| 2010s | 6 | 431 | #3,378 |
| 2020–25 | 0 | 130 | #4,883 |
Ranks count every name given to at least 5 boys that year, so they can go past 1,000. "Under 5" means fewer than 5 boys got the name.
Generation fingerprint
33.4% of babies named Bret from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Gen X years (1965–1980). The full split by generation:
Where Bret is most popular
The index compares Bret's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Bret.
| State | Index | Babies |
|---|---|---|
| Utah | 4.22× | 970 |
| Idaho | 2.94× | 316 |
| Iowa | 2.81× | 964 |
| Kansas | 2.70× | 744 |
| Oregon | 2.12× | 536 |
Other spellings
Spellings that sound like Bret and were given to at least 1,000 boys from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.
| Spelling | Boys | Peak year |
|---|---|---|
| Bret (this page) | 29,819 | 1959 |
| Brett | 159,109 | 1986 |
| Bert | 20,474 | 1880 |
Names with a similar story
Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Bret's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Bret.
Names from the same era
Other common names that peaked within two years of Bret (1959).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data