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

Brinkman, 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 Brinkman surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Brinkman in America

Brinkman is the 3421st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Brinkman surname appeared 10,432 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Brinkman.

We can also compare 2010 data for Brinkman 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 Brinkman

The surname Brinkman originated in the northern regions of Germany and the Netherlands during the late medieval period. It is derived from the Old German words "brink" meaning a grassy edge or border, and "man" meaning a person. The name likely referred to someone who lived near the edge of a village or settlement.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Brinkman can be found in the Bremisches Urkundenbuch, a collection of historical documents from the city of Bremen, dating back to the 14th century. In this record, a certain "Hinricus Brinkman" is mentioned as a landowner in the year 1372.

The Brinkman name also appears in several Dutch records from the 16th and 17th centuries, such as the Lidmaten Register, a register of church members. This suggests that the name had spread to the neighboring Netherlands during this time period.

A notable early bearer of the Brinkman surname was Dirck Brinkman, a Dutch merchant and explorer who sailed with the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century. He was involved in the establishment of Dutch settlements in present-day Indonesia and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the time.

Another prominent figure was Johann Brinkman, a German theologian and philosopher who lived from 1630 to 1703. He was a professor at the University of Jena and authored several influential works on theology and metaphysics.

In the 18th century, a certain Johann Brinkman (1707-1781) was a well-known German architect who designed several notable buildings in the baroque style, including the Fridericianum in Kassel.

During the 19th century, the Brinkman name gained prominence in the field of science. Carl Gustav Brinkman (1809-1889) was a Swedish botanist and taxonomist who made significant contributions to the classification of plants.

Additionally, Arnold Brinkman (1834-1897) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who specialized in landscape and genre scenes, and is considered a part of the Hague School of artists.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Brinkman

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

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 Brinkman 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 Brinkman 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 Brinkman was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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