Brendan
A Celtic name meaning "prince". In Poland it stays rare: only about 85 men carry it, so most Poles have never met one.
Brendan Pronunciation
Brendan is pronounced BREN-dahn (/ˈbrɛndan/).
What Brendan means
Where Brendan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Brendan begins in the Celtic languages, in a word that meant prince. Scholars trace it to a Brythonic root, breenhin, the term for a ruler. The English-speaking world took it up and made it its own, which is why Brendan now reads as an Irish and English name.
Its most famous bearer sailed. Brendan of Clonfert, a sixth-century Irish monk, became Brendan the Navigator, and a Latin tale called the Navigatio Sancti Brendani sent him across the Atlantic in a leather boat. That story spread through medieval Europe. A saint carried the name before any parent did.
Brendan keeps no diminutives and no feminine form. It stands alone, a single shape with a single meaning. On a Polish class register it would sit among names with softer edges, foreign and clear. The prince in it, książę, is no title anyone wears. It is the plain sense of a Celtic word.
When Brendan celebrates name day
Brendan appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 16 May.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Brendan
1 in 251132 men in Poland is named Brendan. 85 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3825 among male names.
Brendan's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Brendan as a middle name
Brendan is a first name for 85 men in Poland and a middle name for another 37, a 70/30 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1319th, between Bożysław (37) and Cyrus (37).
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#1317 Aurelian37
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#1318 Bożysław37
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#1319 Brendan37
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#1320 Cyrus37
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#1321 César37