Meaning & origin
What it means
Bradbury goes back to Old English brād, meaning “broad.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1949. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Bradbury through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5
- 5 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1949
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1949. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 7,854 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
People named Bradbury
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Bradbury, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Bradford
“from the wide ford”
>99% boys
Barlow
“from the bare hill”
>99% boys
Whaley
“well, spring”
>99% boys
Kilburn
“kiln” · “stream, brook”
>99% boys
Artis
“lofty hill; noble” · “rock”
94% boys · 6% girls
Woody
“a woman of the forest” · “a man of the forest”
>99% boys
Brad
“one who has broad shoulders”
>99% boys
Gary
“one who wields a spear”
>99% boys