# Brinkley (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 13,695 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,632 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 22,544 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.4% (13,121 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

"Brynca's wood or clearing", from Old English personal name *Brynca + lēah (“wood, clearing”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Brinkley 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) | 67% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 28% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 2.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Brinkley in the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.

## People named Brinkley

- Christie Brinkley, American model and actress
- David Brinkley, American journalist (1920–2003)
- John Brinkley, Bishop of Cloyne; Royal Astronomer of Ireland; Irish Anglican bishop and astronomer
- John R. Brinkley, American fraudulent physician (1885-1942)
- Nell Brinkley, American illustrator (1886–1944)
- Jack Thomas Brinkley, American politician (1930-2019)

## Similar surnames

Briones, Brink, Brinkman, Brinker, Brinkerhoff, Brinegar, Brinkmann, Brinks, Barnes, Burns, Branch, Bernstein.

## 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.