Brough
A habitational surname for someone who came from a place called Brough, from an Old English word for a fort or borough.
The #9,698 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,301 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Brough is a locational surname, taken from places named Brough in northern England. The place-name goes back to Old English burh, meaning a fort, fortified place, borough, or town, with later dialect forms such as brough reflecting the same root. In surname use, it simply meant “from Brough” or “of Brough.”
History
The surname appears in medieval records in forms such as de Brough, showing the normal pattern of place-based naming after a person left their home village. It is associated especially with northern English counties, where several places called Brough existed. Later spelling was fairly stable, though related forms such as Bruff and other burh-derived surnames sometimes overlap in older records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Brough is part of a whole family of English surname forms ultimately traced to Old English burh, which also gave us words like borough and burry-like place names.
From the historical record
“BUbrough, BUberry, BiU- brough.— Local, 'of Bilborough,' a village parish near Tadcaster, CO. York. Bilbeny seems imita- Richa”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances