Given name & surname
Burnett
“referring to the color of brown”
Burnett is used as a given name and a surname. One French interpretation is “referring to the color of brown.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One French interpretation is “referring to the color of brown.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is French.
How it developed
From Middle English burnet (“brown”), from Old French brunet.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1882. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Burnett through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,843
- 1,561 boys · 282 girls
- Most popular year
- 1920
- 53 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1994. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 43 in 1920. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 719 as a first name in 2020; 58,194 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Burnett’s family of names
Burnett has a related form in Burnette. Burnett has a related form in Burnetta. Burnett has a related form in Burnet.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 7
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Burnett
- Burny MattinsonAmerican animator (1935–2023)
- B. H. StreeterBritish biblical scholar and textual critic (1874-1937)
- Burnett GuffeyAmerican cinematographer (1905-1983)
- Burnett BollotenBritish writer and scholar1909–1987
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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