About the Brownlie Surname

Brownlie and Brownlee are two spellings with one history. The family name meaning is “Brown meadow”, the same as for Brownlee. Before spelling was fixed, Brownlee was also written Brownlie. Census takers and immigration officers often wrote what they heard. The same family of names includes Brownley.

The 2010 US Census counted 454 people named Brownlie, ranking it number 46,811 among American surnames. It sits among the 50,000 most common last names in the country.

Arms linked to Brownlee and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to. For the full story, order the Brownlie surname pack.