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    The surname O'Brian

    A surname, carried by 3,203 people in the United States.

    3 syllables Soundex O165

    O'Brian: #10,064 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer O'Brian #10,064, 3,203 people O'Brian: #10,064 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez O'Brian #10,064, 3,203 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). O'Brian is more common than 93.8% of them.

    Origin

    A surname.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 3,203 people named O'Brian in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 96,393 Americans. That is down 3.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 3,326.

    #10,064
    rank among US surnames
    3,203
    people in 2010
    1.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    -3.7%
    change since 2000 (was #9,036)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #10,059Wesolowski3,20496,363
    #10,064O'Brian3,20396,393
    #10,068Creager3,20296,423
    #10,072Cranston3,20096,483

    Who is named O'Brian

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

    91% of people named O'Brian identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.0% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 91%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 3.3%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.0%
    • Two or more races 1.5%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous O'Brians

    2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Hugh O'Brian
      American actor and United States Marine (1925–2016)
    • Katy O'Brian
      American actress, writer and martial artist, born 1989

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like O'Brian

    O'Brian has the Soundex code O165, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code O165.

    Questions

    How common is the surname O'Brian?
    3,203 people in the United States had the surname O'Brian in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 96,393 Americans. It ranked 10,064th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname O'Brian?
    In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named O'Brian identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named O'Brian?
    Hugh O'Brian, American actor and United States Marine (1925–2016), followed by Katy O'Brian.
    Where is the surname O'Brian most common?
    Wikidata records people named O'Brian in the United States.
    Is the surname O'Brian getting more or less common?
    Less common. 3,326 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,203 in 2010, down 3.7%.