Explore the Family Name Breau

The meaning of Breau

1. American French: variant of Breaux, and an altered form of its French cognates Braud and Brault. 2. French (Bréau): variant of Breuil (see Dubreuil). History: Vincent Breau/Brault from France married Marie Bourg in Acadia c.1661. Some characteristic forenames: French Ulysse, Alcide, Antoine, Aurore, Girard, Leonide, Mederic, Ovila, Raoul, Yves, Yvon.

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

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

The surname Breau has seen a shift in popularity according to data based on the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, the surname ranked at 34,210 in terms of popularity and had 627 counts. By 2010, the rank decreased to 37,442 and the count dropped slightly to 595, marking a change of -9.45% and -5.1% respectively. This indicates that fewer people carried the Breau surname in 2010 as compared to 2000. The proportion per 100,000 also decreased from 0.23 to 0.20, a drop of -13.04%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#34,210	#37,442	-9.45%
Count	627	595	-5.1%
Proportion per 100k	0.23	0.2	-13.04%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Breau

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals a small but noticeable shift for the surname Breau. In 2000, the majority of Breaus identified as White (95.22%), followed by Black (3.67%). A negligible percentage identified with two or more races. By 2010, though the majority still identified as White (93.28%), there was a slight decrease (-2.04%). There were increases in those who identified as Black (4.20%, +14.44%) and those identifying with two or more races (1.01%, +26.25%). Interestingly, a new category emerged in 2010 where 0.84% identified as Hispanic, which was not present in the 2000 data.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.22%	93.28%	-2.04%
Black	3.67%	4.2%	14.44%
Two or More Races	0.8%	1.01%	26.25%
Hispanic	0%	0.84%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%