Explore the Family Name Branigan

The meaning of Branigan

Irish: variant of Brannigan, from Ó Branagáin. Some characteristic forenames: Irish Donal.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Branigan in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Branigan saw a slight decline in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 19,953 in popularity across all surnames, dropping to 20,434 by 2010, a decrease of 2.41%. However, the number of individuals bearing this surname increased from 1,245 in 2000 to 1,300 in 2010, marking a growth rate of 4.42%. As a proportion per 100,000 people, the occurrence of the Branigan surname went down slightly from 0.46 to 0.44.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,953	#20,434	-2.41%
Count	1,245	1,300	4.42%
Proportion per 100k	0.46	0.44	-4.35%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Branigan

In terms of ethnic identity, the Branigan surname has seen some changes over the decade, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, the majority of individuals with the surname Branigan were identified as White at 86.02%, which fell to 82.54% by 2010. The proportion of Branigans identifying as Black remained relatively stable, increasing marginally from 11.24% in 2000 to 11.38% in 2010. There was a significant increase in those identifying as two or more races, growing from 1.20% of all Branigans in 2000 to 3.00% in 2010. The percentage of Branigans identifying as Hispanic also rose notably from 0.80% to 2.46%. Meanwhile, data for individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander was suppressed in 2010, and the American Indian and Alaskan Native category remained at zero for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	86.02%	82.54%	-4.05%
Black	11.24%	11.38%	1.25%
Two or More Races	1.2%	3%	150%
Hispanic	0.8%	2.46%	207.5%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.72%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%