Brooklin
Feminine · “Dutch Breukelen”
Brooklin is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,037 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Brooklyn is a town in Utrecht. Breukelen, meaning broken land or marshy ground, gave its name to a Dutch settlement on Long Island in 1646, and the spelling was anglicized over the following century. The borough is named after a Dutch village most New Yorkers have never heard of.
How old is the name Brooklin?
Brooklin first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Brooklin alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 2,000 people named Brooklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brooklin most popular?
Brooklin peaked in 2007, reaching #1645 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,215 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Breukelen to Brooklin
The story of Brooklin
The Dutch layer under New York City is thick and almost invisible. Brooklyn is Breukelen; Harlem is Haarlem; Flushing is Vlissingen; Yonkers is from jonkheer, a young nobleman; the Bronx is named for Jonas Bronck, an early settler; Coney Island is Konijn Eiland, rabbit island; the Bowery is bouwerij, a farm; Gramercy is from Krom Moerasje, a crooked little swamp. The colony lasted only forty years before the English took it in 1664, but the toponymy stuck and so did a set of loanwords: cookie, coleslaw, waffle, boss, stoop, dope, spook and Santa Claus are all Dutch. Brooklyn as a personal name is entirely modern, entering the American data in the 1990s, and it is read by everyone who uses it as containing an English brook and the -lyn ending, neither of which is there.
Meaningscholars disagree
Dutch Breukelen, broken or marshy land
Brooklyn is named for Breukelen, a town in the Dutch province of Utrecht, whose own name is generally read as broken land or marshland. The New Netherland settlement was chartered in 1646 and the name was gradually anglicized. English speakers read the modern spelling as brook plus lyn, which it is not. Brooklin is a respelling with an i. It peaks in 2007.
How the name formed
- Breukelen
- Brooklyn
- Brooklin
Related forms: Brooklyn · Breukelen
Pronouncing Brooklin
BROOK-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Identical to Brooklyn; the final vowel is fully reduced. The Dutch Breukelen is BROY-kuh-luhn with three syllables.
Nicknames for Brooklin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 2007135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1645reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- +37.5%11 in 2025, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Brooklin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Brooklyn in English — spelling variant
- Breukelen in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Indiana.
Brooklins among us
people named Brooklin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Brooklin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Brooklin
- #8860
- Brooklin on the 2025 chart
- #100
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Brooklin went to 11 girls in 2025, but Brooklyn and Brooklynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 2,919, which makes it the 100th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,760 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 551 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Brooklin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lakeitha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brooklin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lakeitha climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lakeitha's path sketches the road Brooklin is walking now.
Brooklin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Brooklin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brooklin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The place behind it is world-famous.
- Brook is a complete and familiar short form.
- The sound is entirely familiar in American use.
- Brooklyn is the standard spelling by a very wide margin.
- It is a place name and will be read as one.
- The English words it appears to contain are not its source.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Brooklin
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brooklins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Brooklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Brooklin?
- Brooklin is one of 3 recorded spellings. Brooklyn is the more common one — 2,300 births in 2025 against 11 for Brooklin.
- How popular is the name Brooklin in 2025?
- Brooklin ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Brooklin?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Brooklin — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brooklin with classmates?
- Brooklin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brooklin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brooklin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brooklin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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