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The surname Brinkley

An English surname, carried by 13,695 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex B652

Brinkley: #2,632 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Brinkley #2,632, 13,695 people Brinkley: #2,632 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Brinkley #2,632, 13,695 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Brinkley is more common than 98.4% of them.

Origin

English origin

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

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 13,695 people named Brinkley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 22,544 Americans. That is up 4.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 13,121.

#2,632
rank among US surnames
13,695
people in 2010
4.6
per 100,000 Americans
+4.4%
change since 2000 (was #2,525)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#2,623Mateo13,74622,461
#2,624Gunderson13,74222,467
#2,625Coburn13,74122,469
#2,626Minton13,73722,475
#2,627Duenas13,73622,477
#2,628Mackenzie13,73322,482
#2,629Briscoe13,72822,490

Who is named Brinkley

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

67% of people named Brinkley identified as white (not Hispanic), 28% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as two or more races.

  • White (not Hispanic) 67%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 28%
  • Two or more races 2.2%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.1%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Brinkleys

6 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Christie Brinkley
    American model and actress, born 1954
  • David Brinkley
    American journalist (1920–2003)
  • John Brinkley
    Bishop of Cloyne; Royal Astronomer of Ireland; Irish Anglican bishop and astronomer, 1763–1835
  • John R. Brinkley
    American fraudulent physician (1885-1942)
  • Nell Brinkley
    American illustrator (1886–1944)
  • Jack Thomas Brinkley
    American politician (1930-2019)

Notable Brinkleys come mostly from the United States (5) and the Kingdom of Great Britain (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Brinkley

Brinkley has the Soundex code B652, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B652.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Brinkley come from?
"Brynca's wood or clearing", from Old English personal name *Brynca + lēah (“wood, clearing”).
How common is the surname Brinkley?
13,695 people in the United States had the surname Brinkley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 22,544 Americans. It ranked 2,632nd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Brinkley?
In the 2010 Census, 67% of people named Brinkley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 28% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Brinkley?
Christie Brinkley, American model and actress, followed by David Brinkley.
Where is the surname Brinkley most common?
Wikidata records people named Brinkley in the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Is the surname Brinkley getting more or less common?
More common. 13,121 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 13,695 in 2010, up 4.4%.