Bryan

Locally spelled Brian in US United States, GB United Kingdom, CA Canada and 3 more and Brayan in CO Colombia, EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

• English:/ˈbɹaɪən/●(recorded in a dictionary) from Wiktionary
• Spanish:/braʝan/○(machine-generated) model-generated

Readings marked model-generated were transcribed by a model; the others are quoted from the dictionary named.

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Bryan, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Aidan
• Andrew
• Chad
• Aaron
• Austin

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Bryan is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name30 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, France, Peru, Philippines

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Bryän, B'Ryan, Bryân, Bryán, Brÿan

• a separate name2 spellings in the group
• Indonesian given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

  Also written 'Bryan, Brýáņ

• Polish given name90 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Brian, Брайан, Brayan, Бриан, Brain

• English surname151 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada

  Languages: English, German, Thai

  Also written Braun, Bryon, Brian, Braian, Bryant

• Greek given name8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Brian, Braian, Briant, Μπριαν, Mpraian

82 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Bryan is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In French, Variant of Brian, from Irish/Celtic roots, often interpreted as 'high, noble'.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• Variant of Brian, influenced by the usual spelling of the associated surname.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A male given name from Irish, a less common alternative spelling of Brian.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, William Jennings, US lawyer.

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, politician; pers. name

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Bryan Cranstonb. 1956USAmerican actor (born 1956)
• Bryan Singerb. 1965USAmerican film director and producer
• Bryan Danielsonb. 1981USAmerican professional wrestler

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

121 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 65 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Bryan mean, and where does it come from?

(i) from the male personal name Brian, of Celtic origin and perhaps meaning ‘high’ or ‘noble’; (ii) ‘person from Brionne’, northern France. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

What are other forms of the name Bryan?

In the etymology graph, Brian, Brayan and Braian are forms of the same name in other languages.

Is Bryan a male or female name?

Bryan is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Brazil (IBGE, 2022), Ecuador (INEC, 2024) and France (INSEE, 2024), among others.

How common is the name Bryan?

In Brazil, the national register counted 71,679 people named Bryan in 2022, about 1 in 3.0 thousand residents.

How common is Bryan compared with other names?

In the United States, Bryan is the 18th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.

Which countries have the most people named Bryan?

In the United States, the national register counted about 1.0 million people named Brian, more than in any other country we hold. After it come United Kingdom, Canada, Philippines and Colombia; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Bryan most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Bryan is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 258 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How do you pronounce Bryan?

It depends on the language: in English /ˈbɹaɪən/ (Wiktionary); in Spanish /braʝan/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.