Brent is an English surname from several place names, including the river Brent and the village of Brent in Devon, and is usually explained as "hill" or "high place", from a Celtic root; a competing reading links it to the Old English for "burnt". It was a top 100 name in the United States in the 1970s. Brent ranked number 319 in 2000, slipped out of the top 1000 in 2017 and stands at number 1509 in 2025.