# Brent (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/brent/  
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 | “steep” |
| Pronunciation | /bɹɛnt/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 140,366 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 139,799 / 567 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 243, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

English surname from placenames in Devon and Somerset, from Old English brant (“steep”), referring to hills. Compare Brents.

## 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 21 | 3,520 |
| 1979 | 17 | 4,247 |
| 1980 | 26 | 3,224 |
| 1981 | 22 | 3,635 |
| 1982 | 25 | 3,349 |
| 1983 | 20 | 3,829 |
| 1984 | 19 | 4,015 |
| 1985 | 24 | 3,524 |
| 1986 | 17 | 4,561 |
| 1987 | 31 | 3,032 |
| 1988 | 16 | 5,090 |
| 1989 | 12 | 6,586 |
| 1990 | 10 | 7,951 |
| 1991 | 6 | 11,687 |
| 1996 | 5 | 13,820 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 287 | 782 |
| 2012 | 318 | 731 |
| 2013 | 289 | 777 |
| 2014 | 263 | 850 |
| 2015 | 254 | 875 |
| 2016 | 211 | 973 |
| 2017 | 201 | 1,007 |
| 2018 | 163 | 1,175 |
| 2019 | 182 | 1,094 |
| 2020 | 145 | 1,265 |
| 2021 | 154 | 1,240 |
| 2022 | 138 | 1,354 |
| 2023 | 125 | 1,450 |
| 2024 | 102 | 1,651 |
| 2025 | 116 | 1,509 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 6 | 2,538 |
| 2007 | 11 | 1,756 |
| 2008 | 4 | 3,687 |
| 2009 | 10 | 1,981 |
| 2010 | 6 | 2,941 |
| 2011 | 6 | 2,892 |
| 2012 | 8 | 2,458 |
| 2013 | 4 | 3,822 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2016 | 3 | 4,810 |
| 2017 | 3 | 4,812 |
| 2018 | 5 | 3,412 |
| 2020 | 3 | 4,608 |
| 2022 | 5 | 3,449 |
| 2025 | 5 | 3,684 |

## People named Brent

- Brent Spiner, American actor
- Brent Scowcroft, 9th & 17th United States National Security Advisor (1925-2020)
- Brent Sancho, footballer and politician from Trinidad and Tobago
- Brent W. Jett, American astronaut
- Brent Renaud, American documentary filmmaker and journalist (1971–2022)
- Brent Barry, American basketball player (born 1971)
- Brent Briscoe, American actor and screenwriter (1961–2017)
- Brent Seabrook, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1985)
- Brent Bookwalter, American racing cyclist
- Brent Hayden, Canadian swimmer, Olympic bronze medallist, world champion, former world record-holder
- Brent Burns, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1985)
- Brent Weeks, American fiction writer

## 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.