Given name & surname
Bret
“a Breton”
Bret is a masculine given name, meaning “a Breton.”
Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1926. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Bret through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 30,051
- 29,819 boys · 232 girls
- Most popular year
- 1959
- 1,839 babies
- 2025
- 20
- #4,883 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −12%
- Easing
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 20 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 4,883 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 11.7% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 1,839 in 1959. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 25,548 as a first name in 2020; 113 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.
Bret’s family of names
Bret has a related form in Brett. In Greek usage, Bret is a transliteration of Μπρετ.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Bret
- Bret Easton EllisAmerican novelist, screenwriterborn 1964
- Bret HartCanadian-American professional wrestler, writer and actorborn 1957
- Bret MichaelsAmerican rock musicianborn 1963
- Bret IwanAmerican voice actorborn 1982
- Bret HarrisonAmerican actorborn 1982
- Bret McKenzieNew Zealand actor and musicianborn 1976
- Bret BaierAmerican journalist, host of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channelborn 1970
- Bret Weinsteinbiologist, professor, public intellectualborn 1969
- Bret StephensAmerican journalistborn 1973
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Bret, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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