Brandon
Meaning
“English surname from a place name meaning hill covered with broom”
Famously borne by Brandon Semenuk, winner of a record five Red Bull Rampage titles.
The story
Brandon came to first-name use through an English surname and place name. The place element is generally read as a hill covered with broom, the yellow-flowering shrub, rather than the often repeated beacon hill. In the United States the name moved from surname territory into a major late twentieth-century fashion. Its curve is nearly absent before the 1950s, rises through the 1960s and 1970s, surges in the 1980s, and reaches its high point in the 1990s before falling through every later decade. Actor Brandon Cruz and then the character Brandon Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210 kept the name highly visible during the climb and peak, though neither alone explains a nationwide wave. Brandon now reads as a clear generational marker: a landscape surname that became a classroom standard, then yielded to newer two-syllable boys' names.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Brandon peaked in the 1990s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,251 people · the #7,127 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 166,667 · median age 23
Among people named Brandon living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 80 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Brandon
Most people given the name Brandon in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Brandon you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Brandon deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Brandon truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Brandon fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Brandon fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Brandon to your family’s tree →