← All names

Briar

Girl name · 36 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Briar: 36 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to girls, peaking at 10 births in 2025.

Briar started life as a surname derived from the Old English *brer*, meaning a thorny bush or patch of wild scrub, but it took root as a first name much later, largely thanks to the fairy-tale princess Briar Rose from Charles Perrault’s *Sleeping Beauty*. The name carries a wonderfully dual nature—it evokes both prickly resilience and wild, untamed beauty. You might recognise it from Briarcliff Manor in New York, a place whose name shares the same botanical root. In Scotland, perhaps its most famous modern bearer is Briar McNulty, a young artist known for her landscape photography of the Highlands. While more common in its American form, *Briar* has been rising steadily in Scottish births since the 2010s, often chosen alongside the spelling variant *Bryar* for nature-loving parents.