Brown

What does the name Brown mean?

Brown is a common surname with a number of points of origin, most commonly being a descriptive name relating to someone with brown hair, clothing or complexion. The name has multiple roots, from the Old English word 'brun', Middle English 'broun', Norse 'brunn', and French 'brun'. Brown is the second most common surname in Canada, and the third most common in Australia and the UK, with a particular prevalence in southern Scotland. Brown can sometimes arise from an anglicisation of other surnames (especially in the United States) such as Braun from Germany and Bruno from Italy.

The earliest occurrence of the Brown surname in our family history documents is from 1391, and we currently have 12,206,549 records where Brown appears.