Bret
Bret is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 21 births. Its best rank was 170th, in 1959.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 210.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 19591,839 births
- Best rank
- #170in 1959
- Since 1926
- 29,798people given the name
The story in the numbers
29,798 boys have been named Bret in the United States since 1926, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1959, with 1,839 births.
The name has all but left use: 21 births in 2024, against 1,839 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1973, and the 1960s alone account for 28%. It has spent 51 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Bret | |
|---|---|---|
| 1920s | 5 | |
| 1940s | 133 | |
| 1950s | 3,963 | |
| 1960s | 8,413 | |
| 1970s | 5,536 | |
| 1980s | 5,582 | |
| 1990s | 4,007 | |
| 2000s | 1,618 | |
| 2010s | 431 | |
| 2020s | 110 |
In 1959, its biggest year
Bret was the 170th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1959 were Michael, David, James, John and Robert. See all of 1959.
Names that rose and fell with Bret
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Timmothypeak 1960
- Aundrapeak 1967
- Kevinpeak 1963
- Brienpeak 1963
- Kraigpeak 1968
- Jeffereypeak 1969
- Timothypeak 1959
- Rustypeak 1961
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.