The GALBRAITH surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	8,555	3808	0.003	32
United States (1880 census)	2,124	2828	0.004	42
Change since 1880	+6431	-980	-0.001	-10
Other Countries
Australia	871	1883	0.005	53
United Kingdom	3,878	1604	0.008	84

Top States for GALBRAITH by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
California	920	3250	0.003	27
Pennsylvania	617	2389	0.005	50
Michigan	567	1936	0.006	57
Texas	532	4041	0.003	26
Florida	476	4160	0.003	30
Top States for GALBRAITH by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Dakota	73	1325	0.010	97
Utah	198	1505	0.009	89
Idaho	109	1597	0.008	84
Washington	444	1601	0.008	75
Alaska	36	2320	0.006	57

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

Classification and Origin of GALBRAITH

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the GALBRAITH 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 GALBRAITH 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 GALBRAITH in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	132	1.54
Mixed Race	130	1.52
White (Hispanic)	104	1.22
Native American/Alaskan	54	0.63
Asian/Pacific	53	0.62
White (Caucasian)	8,082	94.47

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

Meaning of GALBRAITH in historical publications

A compound of two Gaelic words, Gall and Bhreatan, that is, strange Briton, or Low Country Briton. The Galbraiths in the Gaelic are called Breatannich, or Clann-a-Breatannich, that is, the Britons, or the children of the Britons, and were once reckoned a great name in Scotland, according to the following lines:-- "Bhreatanuich o'n Talla dhearg, Hailse sir Alba do shloinneadh." "Galbraith's from the Red Tower, Noblest of Scottish surnames." The "Talla dhearg," or "Red Tower," was probably Dumbarton, that is, Dun Bhreatain, the hill or stronghold of the Britons, whence it is said the Galbraiths came. Galbraith, Welsh, the diversified plain.

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

Similar names to GALBRAITH

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GALBRAITH.

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.