The Meaning of the Name Brooke

I was given a challenge to write about a specific topic today, and I decided to go for it. The challenge was: write about your first name- what does it mean?

My name is Brooke, and I always thought it meant “from the brook”. Hold on a sec while I head to google…

… well, this is interesting! It does mean “water” or “small stream” and is a gender neutral name derived from English and German. It originally came from the old English word “broc”, which meant water or a brook. It was formerly a surname of families that lived near water!

The site said that the name rose in popularity after Brooke Shields became famous. On a popularity graph, Brooke for boys was high in the early 1900s and dropped drastically after about 1950. The girl version has remained steadily popular- no major spikes or dips on the graph. It is currently the 557th most popular name for babies!

Interesting! This was a fun challenge. Now, I challenge you… go check your name out!