# Birney (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/birney/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Scottish Gaelic.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,463 |
| US rank (2010) | 18,751 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 211,036 people |
| Change since 2000 | +6.6% (1,372 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Birnie |

## Etymology

Scottish habitational surname from a place in Morayshire, probably from Scottish Gaelic braonach (“misty, wet, damp”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Birney in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.8% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.7% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Birney in the United States.

## People named Birney

- James G. Birney, American politician and Kentucky native (1792-1857)
- David Birney, American actor and director (1939–2022)
- Gus Birney, American actress

## Similar surnames

Byrne, Barney, Burney, Borne, Brune, Brien, Biron, Beirne, Briney, Brin, Brine, Brown.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.