The baby name Briar is a nature name that fits perfectly with our moment.
Thanks to Jo for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME BRIAR MEAN?
Briar is a nature name, but not quite as pretty as Magnolia or Violet.
Instead, it means thorny shrub, ultimately from an Old English word, brer. It’s also sometimes spelled brier. While it once referred to all manner of prickly growth, it’s now mostly reserved for wild rose bushes. Sweetbrier and eglantine are also names for this plant.
EGLANTINE and BRIAR ROSE
Speaking of Eglantine, it comes from a French word, ultimately from Latin: needle or sharp point. It has a history of use in France, but also in England. A character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales answers to Eglantine.
But what about the baby name Briar?
In the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora spends much of her life in hiding as Briar Rose. Or at least in many versions, she’s Briar Rose.
It lends Briar a romantic, even other-worldly energy.
Along those lines, Tamora Pierce’s high fantasy series Circle of Magic includes a character named Briar Moss.
IS BRIAR A GENDER NEUTRAL NAME?
But is the baby name Briar unisex?
First, consider that there’s Briar and Brier and Bryer, too. The last one is a separate surname derived from an English place name. It ties back to the briar patch – a cluster of such shrubs. Or sometimes, Bryer might’ve been a surname given to someone with a prickly personality.
In 1989, Liam Neeson co-starred with Patrick Swayze in a movie titled Next of Kin. Swayze and Neeson played brothers from Appalachia, dealing with the murder of a loved one. The characters’ names were probably meant to suggest their roots in an outsider part of the US: Truman, Selkirk, Tolbert, and Neeson’s character, Briar Gates.
After all, Briar sounds a lot like Bryce and Brian and so many other popular boys’ names.
But it also works with Brielle and Briana and plenty of choices for girls, too.
We’ll look at the numbers in a minute, but whether Briar is a boy’s name or girl’s name? That mostly comes down to personal preference.
THE GREENBRIER
Briar also appears on the map, in several forms.
To list just two: Brierly Hill is found in England; in the United States, The Greenbrier is a luxury estate in West Virginia. The latter was originally built as a destination for railroad passengers.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME BRIAR?
In the United States as of 2025, the baby name Briar ranks #400 for girls. it has charted every year since 2015.
fits two trends – nature names, sister for Hazel, but also unisex, a brother for Rowan – nature names especially obvious because who can say if River if better for a boy or a girl?
On the boys’ side, Briar comes in at #686, and has ranked in the Top 1000 since 2017.
LOVELY NAME WITH EDGE
Overall, Briar might be the perfect name if you love the sound of River but want something less common. It’s effortlessly unisex, modern but with roots, and continues to gain in use.
In this moment, that makes Briar a baby name to watch.
What do you think of the name Briar?
