CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW (3 July 2021)

ORIGIN OF THE BROMILOW / BRIMELOW SURNAMES

The origin of the Bromilow/Brimelow group of surnames is a little unclear.  There are two favoured origins – the first as a corruption of the English name BROMLEY that is often claimed to have arisen in Kent; and the alternative is that the Bromilow/Brimelow group arose in the Lancashire area.  It is of course possible that the first event led to the second.  Only future dedicated work will resolve this.  Sometimes it is claimed that Bromley is an “Americanisation” of the Bromilow/Brimelow names.  But looking at the frequency of occurrence of the name Bromley vs Bromilow/Brimilow it seems unlikely to be the case as the global incidence of the Bromley name far outweighs all Bromilow/Brimelow and such derivative names, collectively.

Using Hanks & Hodges (1988) A Dictionary of Surnames OUP (p 77) as an authority 

“BROMLEY.  English: habitation name from any or the many places called Bromley in Essex, Herts., Kent, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Staffs., and elsewhere.  All are probably named with OE (=Old English) brōm (broom) + Lēah (wood, clearing).  Var[ietie]s: Bromiley, Bromilow.  (ref. Hanks, Patrick and Hodges, Flavia, 1988, A Dictionary of Surnames.  Oxford University Press, England, pp liv, 826)

Some other authorities

Lower, Mark Antony (1860) Patronymica Britannica – A Dictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom, p42

        “BROMLEY.  Parishes and places in counties, Kent, Stafford, Northumb., Essex, Middlesex, &c. The word is pure Anglo-Saxon, and equivalent to "broom-field." 

Guppy, Henry Brougham (1890) Homes of Family Names in Great Britain p 339

        “BROMLEY.  The name of Bromley, which is common amongst all classes in Shropshire, is probably in most cases derived from the place thus called in the county, but there is also a Staffordshire township of Bromley. De Bromleye held estates in Leaton in the 14th century, and the name of Bromeley was represented in Broughton in the 16th century (E.). The Bromleys are now most numerous in the Shrewsbury district.

Bardsley, Charles W. E. (1896)  A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames p 137

        “BROMLEY.  “This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Bromley.' (1) A parish in Kent; (a) a township in the parish of Eccleshall, Staffordshire Also Bromley Abbots and Bromley Bagots in Staffordshire, and Great Bromley in Essex, &c

Harrison, Henry (1912) Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) pp 55 and 57

        “BROMILOW.  (English) Dweller at the Broom- Hill [Old English bróm + hlœw] p55

        “BRIMELOW.  (English) Dweller at (prob.) Brim’s or Breme’s Tumulus [v. under Bream, and + Old English hlœw, a (burial) mound] p55

        “BROMLEY.  (English) bel[onging] to Bromley, or Dweller at the Broom-Lea [Old English bróm + leáh] p57

Distribution of the Bromilow/Brimelow etc surname around the world

Below are some rough tables giving estimated figures for the occurrences of the Bromilow and Brimelow surnames around the world in 2014.  These are the two major forms of the surname. There are a myriad of versions of these two “Branches” but these are commonly recorded as having less than 100 adherents and some are only recorded as having the one member.  I have attached a chart for one of the largest of these groups – Bromelow – which has 130 recorded users.  These figures, in one form or another are widely available on the internet – and show some minor variations –which is why I have rounded these data. The figures are likely tabulated digitally from scanned source material, so there will be some false positives and false negatives represented in the figures.  However, they give a fair guide to the overall numbers and frequency of occurrence of the surname variants, in particular to their relative positions. These data are more qualitative than quantitative.

Ref: Forebears.com

Ref: Forebears.com