The BRICK surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	3,133	9518	0.001	12
United States (1880 census)	1,311	4346	0.003	26
Change since 1880	+1822	-5172	-0.002	-14
Other Countries
Australia	137	10728	0.001	8
United Kingdom	398	10473	0.001	9

Top States for BRICK by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	341	5524	0.002	18
California	259	9813	0.001	8
Pennsylvania	220	6703	0.002	18
Florida	199	9117	0.001	12
Minnesota	188	3448	0.004	38
Top States for BRICK by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Dakota	92	914	0.012	122
Minnesota	188	3448	0.004	38
Wisconsin	177	4267	0.003	33
West Virginia	34	4843	0.002	19
Iowa	54	8093	0.002	18

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called BRICK live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called BRICK represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called BRICK in New York than any other state, but you are more likely to find a BRICK by picking someone at random in South Dakota than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of BRICK

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Wales

Language of origin: Welsh

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the BRICK surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the BRICK surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of BRICK in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Hispanic)	56	1.79
Black/African American	45	1.44
Mixed Race	26	0.83
Asian/Pacific	16	0.51
Native American/Alaskan	10	0.32
White (Caucasian)	2,980	95.12

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the BRICK surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of BRICK in historical publications

A corruption of Breck (which see). We cut the following, on this name, from a newspaper: A certain college-professor, who had assembled his class at the commencement of the term, was reading over the list of names to see that all were present. It chanced that one of the number was unknown to the professor, having just entered the class. "What is your name, sir?" asked the professor, looking through his spectacles. "You are a brick," was the startling reply. "Sir," said the professor, half starting out of his chair at the supposed impertinence, but not quite sure that he understood him correctly, "sir, I did not exactly understand your answer." "You are a brick," was again the composed reply. "This is intolerable," said the professor, his face reddening; "beware, young man, how you attempt to insult me." "Insult you !" said the student, in turn astonished. "How have I done it?" "Did you not say I was a brick?" returned the professor, with stifled indignation. "No, sir; you asked me my name, and I answered your question. My name is U. R. A. Brick--Uriah Reynolds Anderson Brick." "Ah, indeed," murmured the professor, sinking back into his seat in confusion--"it was a misconception on my part. Will you commence the lesson, Mr. Brick?"

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

Similar names to BRICK

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as BRICK.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.