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

Kirkbride, 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 Kirkbride surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kirkbride in America

Kirkbride is the 15748th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kirkbride surname appeared 1,851 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 Kirkbride.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kirkbride 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 Kirkbride

The surname Kirkbride is of English origin and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is a locational name, derived from the place name Kirkbride, a small village in the Allerdale district of Cumbria, located near the Solway Firth. The name itself is a combination of the Old Norse words "kirkju" meaning church and "bry̆ggjur" meaning bridge or jetty, referring to a church by a bridge or causeway.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kirkbride can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Cumberland from 1212, where it appears as "Kyrkebrid." This suggests that the name was well-established in the region by the 13th century. The Kirkbride family held lands in Cumberland and Westmorland, and their name is associated with various manors and estates in these areas.

In the 14th century, Sir John de Kirkbride was a prominent figure who served as the High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1357. Another notable bearer of the name was Robert Kirkbride, who was appointed as the Bishop of Carlisle in 1521 and served until his death in 1528.

During the English Civil War in the 17th century, the Kirkbrides were staunch Royalists, and several members of the family fought for King Charles I. Sir Ivers Kirkbride was a colonel in the Royalist army and was killed in action at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642.

In the 18th century, John Kirkbride (1723-1809) was a notable English Quaker and philanthropist who founded the Retreat, one of the earliest institutions for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, in York.

Another significant figure was Thomas Stedman Whitwell Kirkbride (1809-1883), an American physician and one of the founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (now the American Psychiatric Association). He was also the designer of the Kirkbride Plan, a system of mental asylum construction that was widely used in the United States in the 19th century.

While the name Kirkbride has its roots in Cumbria, it has since spread to various parts of the world, including North America, Australia, and New Zealand, as a result of migration and settlement patterns.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kirkbride

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

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

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

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