Explore the Family Name Brightman

The meaning of Brightman

English: from the Old English personal name Brihtmann, Beorhtmann (from beorht, briht ‘bright’ + mann ‘man’).

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Brightman saw a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 14,958th but dropped to 15,955th by 2010, representing a change of -6.67%. Despite this drop in rank, the actual count of people with the Brightman surname increased slightly from 1,813 in 2000 to 1,821 in 2010, showing a growth rate of 0.44%. However, when measured as a proportion per 100,000 people, the presence of the Brightman surname decreased by 7.46%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,958	#15,955	-6.67%
Count	1,813	1,821	0.44%
Proportion per 100k	0.67	0.62	-7.46%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Brightman

When it comes to the ethnic identity associated with the Brightman surname as per the Decennial U.S. Census, the data shows some shifts between 2000 and 2010. The majority remained white, though the percentage declined slightly from 81.14% to 78.69%. The representation of Brightman among those identifying as Hispanic saw a significant increase of 145.45%, going from 1.43% to 3.51%. Among those identifying as Black, there was a slight increase from 15.06% to 15.60%. In 2010, for the first time, the Brightman surname appeared among those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native, albeit at low rates of 0.71% and 0.38% respectively. The number of Brightmans identifying with two or more races declined by 31.25%, from 1.60% to 1.10%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	81.14%	78.69%	-3.02%
Black	15.06%	15.6%	3.59%
Hispanic	1.43%	3.51%	145.45%
Two or More Races	1.6%	1.1%	-31.25%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.71%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.38%	0%