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The surname Brain

A patronymic surname, carried by 1,533 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex B650

Brain: #18,156 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Brain #18,156, 1,533 people Brain: #18,156 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Brain #18,156, 1,533 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Brain is more common than 88.8% of them.

Origin

From the Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname, from mac an Bhreitheamhan (“son of the judge”), from breitheamh (“judge”).

Brain is a patronymic surname: formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 1,533 people named Brain in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 201,400 Americans. That is up 7.5% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,426.

#18,156
rank among US surnames
1,533
people in 2010
0.5
per 100,000 Americans
+7.5%
change since 2000 (was #18,034)

Who is named Brain

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

91% of people named Brain identified as white (not Hispanic), 4.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 3.3% as Black (not Hispanic).

  • White (not Hispanic) 91%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4.4%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 3.3%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8%
The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Native American, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Brain

Brain has the Soundex code B650, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B650.

Questions

Where does the surname Brain come from?
From the Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname, from mac an Bhreitheamhan (“son of the judge”), from breitheamh (“judge”).
How common is the surname Brain?
1,533 people in the United States had the surname Brain in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 201,400 Americans. It ranked 18,156th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Brain?
In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named Brain identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
What type of surname is Brain?
Brain is a patronymic surname, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
Is the surname Brain getting more or less common?
More common. 1,426 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,533 in 2010, up 7.5%.