Word.ws English Dictionary

Brenda

/ˈbɹɛndə/

Brenda proper noun: a female given name.

Proper noun

Brenda

  1. A female given name.
    • We have already mentioned Minna and Brenda, the daughters of Magnus Troil. Their mother had been dead for many years, and they were now two beautiful girls1821, Walter Scott, chapter III, in The Pirate
    • 'Brandi's father owns a number of radio stations across the country.' He smiled. 'Beware of women whose first names are potable.'
      'I'll keep it in mind.'
      'Actually, her real name is Brenda. She was named after Brenda Marshall, who was an actress in the forties. Apparently, my father-in-law was a...1997, Joy Fielding, Missing Pieces, page 85
  2. (UK, humorous) Queen Elizabeth II.
    • There is a widespread belief that Brenda plays no part in politics. This is not entirely true. For instance, she has very strong feelings on Rhodesia.1977, “Loyal News”, in Private Eye, numbers 393-418, page 23
    • Windsor, I was always led to believe. But--as with license plates--they don't ever have to use it. Brenda just signs herself Elizabeth R (Regina).1993 August 10, Jonathan Beasley Murray, “Re: Royal Family's last name?”, in soc.culture.british (Usenet)
  3. A former rural municipality of Manitoba.

Examples of Brenda in a sentence

  • You only had to see the pictures of Brenda visiting the homeless hostel to know that she was bottling back tears.2002 February 13, Heretic, “Re: Old Gin Slugger is dead.”, in uk.current-events.n-ireland (Usenet):
  • The problem isn't just Brenda, it is that there will never be agreement on what to replace her with. viz. the House of Lords debacle, the Australian Republican referendum.2002 November 6, Tom, “Re: "Be careful, Paul..."”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):

Origin of Brenda

Possibly from Old Norse brandr (“sword”); by folk etymology seen as a feminine form of Brendan. Its use as a nickname for Queen Elizabeth II originated in Private Eye in reaction to a perceived attempt by the royals to appear less distant and upper class.

Words formed from Brenda

Words that rhyme with Brenda

Questions about Brenda

What does Brenda mean?
Brenda means a female given name.
How do you use Brenda in a sentence?
You only had to see the pictures of Brenda visiting the homeless hostel to know that she was bottling back tears.
What part of speech is Brenda?
Brenda is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Brenda?
Brenda is pronounced /ˈbɹɛndə/.

Words near Brenda in the dictionary

  1. Brenaissance
  2. Brenan
  3. Brenanah
  4. Brenchley
  5. Brenchley and Matfield
  6. Brenda
  7. Brenda-Waskada
  8. Brendan
  9. Brendel
  10. brendelite
  11. Brendels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Brenda (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Brenda.wav.

Cite this entry: “Brenda.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brenda. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.