Explore the Family Name Fulbright

The meaning of Fulbright

Americanized form of German Vollbrecht or of the variants Volbrecht and Fulbrecht. Compare Fullbright.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname "Fulbright" experienced a slight decline from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Fulbright was ranked as the 9953rd most popular surname in the United States but fell to 10499th in 2010, representing a -5.49% change. Despite this decrease in rank, the actual count of individuals bearing the surname increased by 2.17% over the decade, growing from 2991 in 2000 to 3056 in 2010. However, when considering the proportion per 100 thousand people, there was a -6.31% change, decreasing from 1.11 in 2000 to 1.04 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#9,953	#10,499	-5.49%
Count	2,991	3,056	2.17%
Proportion per 100k	1.11	1.04	-6.31%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Fulbright

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data revealed some shifts among those with the surname Fulbright between 2000 and 2010. The largest increase was seen among individuals identifying with two or more ethnicities, which nearly doubled from 1.04% to 2.00%. Significant increases were also observed in the Asian/Pacific Islander group (from 0.23% to 0.29%) and the Hispanic group (from 1.24% to 1.57%). Meanwhile, the percentage of Fulbrights identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native rose from 0.23% to 0.39%. The percentage identifying as Black saw a slight increase from 13.71% to 13.97%. Notably, the percentage identifying as White decreased slightly from 83.55% to 81.77% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
White	83.55%	81.77%	-2.13%
Black	13.71%	13.97%	1.9%
Two or More Races	1.04%	2%	92.31%
Hispanic	1.24%	1.57%	26.61%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.23%	0.39%	69.57%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.23%	0.29%	26.09%