2000
#6,358
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 4,931
First available Census row
Per 100,000 1.83
Rare Last name
Brumbaugh
A German occupational surname referring to someone who lived near a well or spring.
According to the 2020 US Census Bureau surname tables, roughly 5,411 Americans carry the last name Brumbaugh. That puts it at #6,861 in the national surname ranking, appearing at a frequency of 1.58 per 100,000 people (about 1 in 63,344 residents).
This page is the full Name Census profile for the Brumbaugh surname. You will find the Census Bureau frequency data, a multi-census history view, an ancestry and ethnicity breakdown based on self-reported demographics, the name's meaning and origin where available, and answers to the most common questions people ask about this surname.
Bearers in the US
5.4K
1 in 63,344
Census rank
#6,861
2020 decennial data
Per 100,000
1.6
Frequency rate
Recorded bearers
4.7K
rare in the US
Popularity narrative
The Census Bureau recorded 4,719 bearers of the surname Brumbaugh in its 2020 decennial surname file. At a rate of 1.58 per 100,000 residents, it holds the 6861st position in the national surname ranking.
Among Census respondents with the surname Brumbaugh, the largest self-reported group is White at 93.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.2%) and Hispanic (2.2%).
Origin
Meaning and origin of Brumbaugh
The surname Brumbaugh is of German origin, derived from the Middle High German words "brūn" meaning brown and "bach" meaning brook or stream. It is believed to have originated in the 14th or 15th century as a descriptive name for someone who lived near a brown-colored brook or stream.
The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in various German church records and tax rolls from the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the earliest known bearers of the name include Hans Brumbaugh, born in 1532 in Worms, and Peter Brumbaugh, who was mentioned in a 1617 census record from the town of Heidelberg.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, many German immigrants with the surname Brumbaugh began arriving in America, primarily settling in Pennsylvania and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region. One of the earliest recorded Brumbaughs in America was Johannes Brumbaugh, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1732.
The name Brumbaugh has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. Abraham Brumbaugh (1730-1805) was a German-American farmer and Revolutionary War soldier from Pennsylvania. His grandson, Henry Brumbaugh (1814-1889), was a prominent educator and co-founder of the Brumbaugh Academy in Pennsylvania.
In the 19th century, Martin Grove Brumbaugh (1828-1919) was a well-known educator, author, and founder of the Brumbaugh Historical Society. His nephew, Galusha Aaron Brumbaugh (1862-1952), served as the 29th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1919.
Another notable bearer of the name was Henry May Brumbaugh (1892-1967), a respected physicist and educator who made significant contributions to the field of spectroscopy.
While the name has undergone various spelling variations over the centuries, such as Brumbach, Brumbagh, and Brumbough, the Brumbaugh spelling has remained the most common form in recent generations.
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Brumbaugh
Among Census respondents with the surname Brumbaugh, the largest self-reported group is White at 93.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.2%) and Hispanic (2.2%).
The bar chart below shows how Brumbaugh bearers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given surname, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown for every Census year so the breakdown stays comparable over time. When the source file also includes raw headcounts, Name Census shows those alongside the percentages in the legend.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A person's surname does not determine their race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the Brumbaugh surname at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.4% · 4,408
- Two or more races3.2% · 150
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 102
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 27
- Black or African American0.3% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 16
Timeline
Historical Census data for Brumbaugh
Brumbaugh appears in 3 published Census surname files: 2000, 2010, 2020. The cards below show how the name's rank and bearer count changed across each release.
2010
#6,635
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 5,103
+172 bearers (+3.5%)
Per 100,000 1.73
Rank movement Down 277 places
2020
#6,861
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 4,719
-384 bearers (-7.5%)
Per 100,000 1.58
Rank movement Down 226 places
| Year | Rank | Count | Per 100K | Count change | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | #6,358 | 4,931 | 1.83 | First available Census row | First available Census row |
| 2010 | #6,635 | 5,103 | 1.73 | +172 bearers (+3.5%) | Down 277 places |
| 2020 | #6,861 | 4,719 | 1.58 | -384 bearers (-7.5%) | Down 226 places |
For 2020, the Census Bureau published race and Hispanic-origin columns as counts rather than percentages. Name Census converts those counts back into shares so the ancestry section stays comparable with the older surname files.
Year on year
2010 vs 2020 Census
How has the Brumbaugh surname changed between Census years? The chart shows bearer count side by side, and the table compares rank, count, and frequency.
Census year comparison
20102020
| Metric | 2010 | 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #6,635 | #6,861 | -3.4% |
| Count | 5,103 | 4,719 | -7.5% |
| Per 100K | 1.73 | 1.58 | -8.7% |
Between the 2010 and 2020 Census, the number of Brumbaugh bearers went from 5,103 to 4,719 (-7.5% change). The surname moved down 226 positions in the national ranking, going from #6,635 to #6,861.
FAQ
Brumbaugh surname: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. have the surname Brumbaugh?
Name Census estimates that about 5,411 living Americans carry the surname Brumbaugh. Using the current population baseline, that works out to roughly 1 in 63,344 residents.
How common is Brumbaugh?
Brumbaugh ranks #6,861 in the 2020 Census surname tables and is classified on this site as "Rare." The Census recorded the name at a frequency of 1.58 per 100,000 residents, which is about 2 people out of every 100,000.
How many people with this surname were counted in the Census?
The raw 2020 Census file counted 4,719 people with the surname Brumbaugh. That is different from the site's living-bearer estimate (5,411), which projects the surname's present-day count by applying the Census frequency rate to the current U.S. population.
What does 1.58 per 100,000 actually mean?
It is the Census Bureau's normalized frequency measure. A rate of 1.58 per 100,000 means that if you picked a random group of 100,000 U.S. residents, you would expect about 2 of them to have the surname Brumbaugh.
Has Brumbaugh become more or less common over time?
Between 2010 and 2020, the surname Brumbaugh went from 5,103 recorded bearers to 4,719. That is a decrease of 384 (-7.5%). In the national ranking it fell from #6,635 to #6,861.
What does the Census say about the background of Brumbaugh?
Among Census respondents with the surname Brumbaugh, the largest self-reported group is White at 93.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.2%) and Hispanic (2.2%). These figures come from the 2020 Census Bureau surname tables, based on how respondents described their own race and ethnicity.
Which group reports this surname most often?
White is the largest self-reported group for the surname Brumbaugh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.4% (4,408 people in the source table).
What is the full ancestry breakdown?
Brumbaugh appears across multiple self-reported groups in the Census data. The largest shares in the 2020 file are White (93.4%), Two or More Races (3.2%), Hispanic (2.2%). For 2020, the source file also published raw headcounts for each group, which is why this page can show both percentages and counts in the ancestry section.
Is this page using the latest Census data?
Yes. This page is using the latest surname file currently loaded on Name Census, which is 2020. The historical section above also keeps any older Census surname entries we have for Brumbaugh (2000, 2010, 2020).
Does the Census include every surname?
No. The Census Bureau only publishes surnames that appeared at least 100 times in a given decennial Census. That means very rare surnames are excluded entirely, and a surname can appear in one Census release but disappear from a later one if it falls below the reporting threshold.
Why don't the ancestry percentages always add up to exactly 100%?
There are two main reasons: rounding and suppression. The Census Bureau rounds published values, and it may suppress very small cells to protect privacy. For 2020, the Bureau also published raw group counts rather than direct percentages, so Name Census converts those counts back into shares for comparability across census years.
What does Brumbaugh mean?
A German occupational surname referring to someone who lived near a well or spring. The fuller origin note on this page goes into more detail.
Where does the surname data come from?
All surname statistics on Name Census are drawn from the US Census Bureau's decennial surname frequency tables. These files list every surname that appeared 100 or more times in the 2020 Census, along with a count, a per-100,000 rate, and a self-reported demographic breakdown. You can read the full explanation on our methodology page.
How does Name Census estimate living bearers?
For surnames, Name Census does not age cohorts the way it does for first names. Instead, it takes the Census Bureau's published frequency for Brumbaugh (1.58 per 100,000) and applies that rate to the current U.S. resident population to estimate how many living Americans have the surname today.
How many people are called Brumbaugh?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the last name Brumbaugh at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.