Find out how popular the last name Brawley is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Brawley.

Brawley, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Brawley surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Brawley in America

Brawley is the 7896th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Brawley surname appeared 4,193 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Brawley.

We can also compare 2010 data for Brawley to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Brawley

The surname Brawley is of English origin and is derived from a place name. It is believed to have originated in the parish of Brailsford in Derbyshire, England, which was recorded as "Braulingforde" in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The name Brawley is thought to derive from the Old English words "bræl" meaning "bracken" or "fern" and "ing" indicating a meadow or enclosure. Thus, the name likely referred to a meadow or enclosure where ferns grew abundantly.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Brawley can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire from 1166, where a person named William de Braulingebi was mentioned. This suggests that the name had already begun to evolve from its place name origins by the 12th century.

In the 13th century, a knight named Sir Robert de Brawley was mentioned in the Testa de Nevill, a record of land ownership in England. This indicates that the Brawley family held lands and had achieved a certain social status by that time.

Another notable early bearer of the name was John Brawley, who was born around 1450 in Chelmsford, Essex. He is recorded as having been a merchant and landowner in the region.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Brawley surname began to spread beyond its initial geographic origins. In 1567, a Robert Brawley was recorded in the parish records of St. Saviour's Church in Norwich, suggesting that the name had reached East Anglia by that time.

In the 17th century, a prominent Brawley family was based in Lancashire. Thomas Brawley (1620-1692) was a successful merchant and landowner in the town of Clitheroe. His son, also named Thomas (1652-1718), was a respected lawyer and served as the High Sheriff of Lancashire.

As the British Empire expanded, the Brawley surname traveled to various corners of the world. One notable example is Sir John Brawley (1797-1872), a British colonial administrator who served as the Lieutenant Governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa from 1854 to 1858.

While the Brawley surname has its roots in England, it has since become widely distributed across many English-speaking countries, with bearers of the name found in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Brawley

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Brawley.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Brawley was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Brawley has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Brawley was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Brawley, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!