# Brimley (surname)

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

A habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 563 |
| US rank (2010) | 39,117 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 548,393 people |
| Change since 2000 | +17% (482 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English brōm (“broom”) + lēah (“wood”). Equivalent to broom + -ley and doublet of Bromley.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Brimley 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) | 65% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 32% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Brimley in the United States.

## People named Brimley

- Wilford Brimley, American actor and singer (1934–2020)

## Similar surnames

Brumley, Bromley, Bramley, Bramel, Bramlett, Burnley, Brimhall, Brinley, Bernal, Brownlee, Barnhill, Brownell.

## 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.