The highpoint of the range is 1,794 feet (547 meters) above sea level and is located at 32°18'27"N, 113°22'46"W (NAD 1983 datum).

The range was named in 1933 by Eldred D. Wilson[1] for Kirk Bryan, a geologist and explorer with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) who in the early 1920s conducted a reconnaissance of the area and wrote a detailed guide describing the area's geology and difficult-to-find surface water resources.

[2] Bryan was one of several geologists and geographers dispatched by the USGS in the early part of the 20th century to explore and record the physical characteristics of the arid southwestern United States.

The Water Supply Papers published by Bryan and others are now considered classic accounts of what the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts were like before the post-World War II population boom transformed the region.

Wilson evidently intended for the Bryan Mountains to extend even farther to the north and south than what was eventually recorded on USGS maps of the area.