Brittany has 360,387 SSA records and peaked in 1989 — making it one of the most culturally dominant names of the late 1980s and early 1990s. At rank 791, it sits in the same generational holding pattern as Megan, Ashley, and Jennifer: too recent for grandparent revival, too ubiquitous in one generation for easy reuse.
The French Province
Brittany is the anglicized form of Bretagne — the northwestern French region that was settled by Celtic Britons fleeing the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain in the 5th-6th centuries. Brittany (Bretagne) therefore carries a Celtic migration story: people who left Britain, kept their culture in France, and named their new homeland after their old one. The region gave the world crêpes, cider, Carnac's standing stones, and a naming tradition that traveled to America. Latin place names encoded in Celtic heritage don't get much more layered than Brittany. The name was occasionally used in England before the American wave, but the 1989 surge was entirely American in character.
The 1989 Peak and Spears
Britney Spears — born 1981, famous from 1998 — did not cause the Brittany peak; she was named during it. Both the celebrity and the baby name trend drew from the same cultural well. The Brittany peak represents a cohort rather than a cause: an entire generation of Brittanys, Britneys, Brittneys, and Brittaneys born in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That cohort is now in their 30s, and their children are the current baby cohort. The name carries that generational imprint strongly. Brittany versus Britney, same name, the spelling distinction marking the gap between the general name and the celebrity's specific variant.
The Long View
Brittany's revival will come, but probably not before 2050-2060, when the generational association has softened enough for the name to read vintage rather than dated. For now, it's a name with real geographic roots, real Celtic heritage, and an honest American peak that defined a generation. 1980s peak names are just beginning the long process of rehabilitation.