girl's name
Brandy
BRAN-dee
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 6
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 109,943
Brandy is named for the drink, and the drink means burned wine — the Dutch brandewijn described wine heated to distil it, so the name records a manufacturing process rather than a quality. It holds 109,172 lifetime births in our records.
- Brandy is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1981, when 6,963 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 57,162 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1942.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Brandy over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 64 |
| 1950s | 246 |
| 1960s | 1,411 |
| 1970s | 40,853 |
| 1980s | 45,102 |
| 1990s | 15,200 |
| 2000s | 4,504 |
| 2010s | 1,146 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 335 |
What Brandy means
Brandy means the spirit distilled from wine, and behind that, burned wine. The Dutch compound joins a word for burning to one for wine, describing how the drink is made.
Where Brandy comes from
Brandy is the English word, clipped from brandywine, itself the Dutch brandewijn — branden, to burn, joined to wijn, wine. The burning is distillation: wine heated so the alcohol evaporates and is collected. English shortened the compound in the seventeenth century. As a given name it belongs with Sherry, Whisky-adjacent coinages and the wider mid-century American fashion for word names, and its rise in the 1970s owes something to a 1972 song.
Brandy in use
Brandy peaked in the United States in 1981, when 6,963 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It charts in exactly one of the six markets we track, at 3084th in the United States on 58 births, across 109,943 lifetime births. Our records carry it only from 1942, so its whole measured life fits inside eighty years.
How popular is Brandy?
In 2025, Brandy was given to 58 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Brandy is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Brandy
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Brandy also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Brandy over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Brandy in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Brandy
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Brandy — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Brandy
What does the name Brandy mean?
The drink — and the drink means burned wine, from the Dutch brandewijn.
Why burned wine?
The burning is distillation: wine heated so the alcohol evaporates and is collected.
Is it Brandy or Brandi?
Both are used; Brandy follows the word and Brandi is a later respelling.
How popular is Brandy?
3084th in the United States, down from a 1981 peak of 6,898 births.
Is Brandy a girl's or a boy's name?
Brandy is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Brandy?
Brandy has 2 syllables.
Is Brandy a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Brandy currently ranks #3,084 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.