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    The surnameBrown

    An English nickname surname, the 4th most common in the United States.

    Pronounced /bɹaʊn/ 1 syllable Soundex B650

    Brown: #4 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Brown #4, 1,437,026 people Brown: #4 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Brown #4, 1,437,026 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Brown is more common than 99.9% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    From Middle English Broun, originally a nickname for someone with brown hair or a dark complexion. In the United States, sometimes an anglicization and translation of German Braun. Doublet of Bruno and Braun.

    Brown is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

    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 1,437,026 people named Brown in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 215 Americans. That is up 4.1% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,380,145.

    #4
    rank among US surnames
    1,437,026
    people in 2010
    487
    per 100,000 Americans
    +4.1%
    change since 2000 (was #4)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #1Smith2,442,977126
    #2Johnson1,932,812160
    #3Williams1,625,252190
    #4Brown1,437,026215
    #5Jones1,425,470217
    #6Garcia1,166,120265
    #7Miller1,161,437266

    Who is named Brown

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

    58% of people named Brown identified as white (not Hispanic), 36% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 58%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 36%
    • Two or more races 2.5%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Browns

    422 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Dan Brown
      American novelist (born 1964)
    • James Brown
      American musician (1933–2006)
    • Robert Brown
      British botanist (1773-1858), discoverer of the cell nucleus and of Brownian Motion (1773–
    • John Brown
      American abolitionist (1800–1859)
    • Herbert C. Brown
      American chemist (1912–2004)
    • Michael E. Brown
      American planetary astronomer, born 1965
    • Michael Stuart Brown
      American geneticist and Nobel laureate, born 1941
    • Jim Brown
      American football player and actor (1936–2023)
    • Clancy Brown
      American actor (born 1959)
    • Ketanji Brown Jackson
      American lawyer and jurist (born 1970)
    • David M. Brown
      American astronaut (1956–2003)
    • Fredric Brown
      American novelist, short story author (1906–1972)

    Notable Browns come mostly from the United States (349), the United Kingdom (25) and Australia (17).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    Surnames that sound like Brown

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

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Brown come from?
    From Middle English Broun, originally a nickname for someone with brown hair or a dark complexion. In the United States, sometimes an anglicization and translation of German Braun. Doublet of Bruno and Braun.
    How common is the surname Brown?
    1,437,026 people in the United States had the surname Brown in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 215 Americans. It ranked 4th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Brown?
    In the 2010 Census, 58% of people named Brown identified as white (not Hispanic), and 36% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Brown?
    Dan Brown, American novelist (born 1964), followed by James Brown.