Brooks
Masculine · Old English roots · “Of the brooks”
Brooks is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 57,946 boys against 1,693 girls since 1880. See Brooks as a girl name
Brooks began as an English surname for a family that lived beside running water — from Old English brōc, a stream. It came into American first-name use the way Carter and Wells did, by moving a family name to the front, and it keeps the plain sound of the everyday word it grew from: one syllable, rhyming with books.
How old is the name Brooks?
Brooks was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Brooks is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 54,500 people named Brooks are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Brooks most popular?
Brooks peaked in 2025, reaching #64 nationally. Today it ranks #64, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From brōc (Old English) to Brooks
The story of Brooks
The word behind it is very old: brōc was already Old English for a small stream, and medieval English records show families identified by the water they lived near — atte Broke, del Brok — which hardened into the hereditary surnames Brook, Brooke and Brooks. Those surnames traveled to North America with English settlers and, in the American habit of promoting family names to given names, Brooks began appearing as a first name for boys. It has been documented that way for well over a century, quietly at first, with a much larger wave arriving only recently. Outside the United States it charts in Canada, though its strongest hold has always been American.
Meaning
Of the brooks — from a family that lived beside a stream
The root is Old English brōc, 'brook, stream'. The final -s marks the surname sense 'of the brook(s)', the same possessive ending seen in Wells, Rivers and Banks.
How the name formed
- brōcOld English
- Brook
- Brooke
- Brooks
Pronouncing Brooks
BROOKS
One syllable, rhyming with books. There is no competing pronunciation in English, and the spelling gives it away on sight.
Nicknames for Brooks
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20254,877 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #64reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +12.1%4,877 in 2025, from 4,349
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.
Brooks in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Brookss among us
people named Brooks are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 350 born in 2025 was named Brooks
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Phillip test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Brooks's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Phillip climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Phillip's path sketches the road Brooks is walking now.
Brooks is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Brooks is headed
Brooks looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Brooks beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Brooks in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way an ordinary English word is spelled, so most people get it right on the first try after hearing it once.
- One syllable — easy to say, easy to call across a yard, and it sits cleanly in front of longer middle and last names.
- Documented as a given name for boys for well over a century, so the recent wave is a revival rather than an invention.
- Works in both English-speaking North American countries, charting in Canada as well as the United States.
- Reads naturally as either a first name or a surname, which keeps it at home on a résumé as well as a kindergarten cubby.
- Brooke, the near-identical spelling, is used mainly for girls in English. Expect the occasional form that comes back with an -e on the end.
- The final -s invites mix-ups: people may hear it as a surname, ask for a first name after it, or reverse the two on forms.
- It is climbing quickly. A boy named Brooks now will likely be the only one in his class, but may meet more of them as he grows up.
- One syllable leaves little to shorten, so he will probably go by his full name most of the time — fine, if that is what you want.
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What they receive
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Brooks
Masculine · Old English roots · #64 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Brookss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 54,500 people named Brooks are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Brooks in 2025?
- Brooks ranks #64 among US boy names in 2025, with 4,877 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Brooks?
- About 1 in every 350 US boys born in 2025 was named Brooks — 4,877 in all.
- Will my child share the name Brooks with classmates?
- Brooks will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Brooks
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nolan#65 · Nathan#63 · Aiden#62 · Joshua#66 · Ezekiel#61 · Angel#67 · Beau#60 · Christopher#68
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Brooks? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Brooks and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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