# Bradford (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/bradford/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | English |
| Meaning | “broad”, “ford” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɹædfɚd/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 32,114 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 32,075 / 39 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | not in the ONS data |

## Etymology

* Various place names in England, from Old English brād (“broad”) + ford (“ford”). * (shaken martini)

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 5 | 5,912 |
| 1967 | 5 | 6,897 |
| 1968 | 6 | 6,324 |
| 1975 | 8 | 6,553 |
| 1976 | 5 | 9,443 |
| 1977 | 5 | 9,789 |
| 1987 | 5 | 11,501 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 73 | 1,907 |
| 2012 | 81 | 1,821 |
| 2013 | 64 | 2,093 |
| 2014 | 77 | 1,886 |
| 2015 | 63 | 2,171 |
| 2016 | 68 | 2,068 |
| 2017 | 70 | 2,018 |
| 2018 | 67 | 2,103 |
| 2019 | 48 | 2,663 |
| 2020 | 50 | 2,553 |
| 2021 | 49 | 2,631 |
| 2022 | 42 | 2,972 |
| 2023 | 49 | 2,662 |
| 2024 | 42 | 2,965 |
| 2025 | 32 | 3,522 |

## People named Bradford

- Walter Bradford Cannon, American physiologist (1871-1945)
- Bradford Dillman, American actor (1930–2018)
- Bradford Young, American cinematographer
- J. Bradford DeLong, American economist
- Bradford Jamieson IV, American professional soccer player
- Bradford Parkinson, American systems engineer and developer of global positioning system
- Bradford Washburn, American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer (1910–2007)
- Bradford Cox, American musician
- Bradford Anderson, American actor
- Bradford Tatum, American actor
- Bradford Bishop, American on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list
- Bradford A. Smith, American astronomer (1931-2018)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.