Brigham

Brigham comes from an English place-name surname referring to a settlement near a bridge. The bridge was a practical landmark, so the name originally located a community within the landscape. Its first-name use follows the long tradition of carrying a family surname into a new position.

Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gives the name a particularly strong religious and historical association. Brigham Young University reinforces that connection for many Americans. A family may choose it for that heritage or for an inherited surname, but the underlying meaning remains geographic. The two-syllable pronunciation usually keeps the written gh from becoming a separate sound.