Brooks

What Brooks means

Variant of Brook, meaning “swamp, marsh”

variant of Brook || As a north German surname, from Low German Brook (“swamp, marsh”), related to the above.

Source: Wiktionary, “Brooks” (revision 93441965) and “Brook” (revision 92136641), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Brooks?

US: Rising: up from #233 in 2015. England & Wales: New in the last 10 years.

Biggest US share so far: 2025, when 4,877 boys got the name (#64 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 350 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 4,120 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 1,228 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in WY (11.01 per 1,000 boys), DE (9.84 per 1,000 boys), ND (8.64 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Brooks is #64 in the US and #585 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 98.2% of US babies named Brooks were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Broox5 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

Spelling variants on Wiktionary

• Brook

Listed as alternative forms on Wiktionary.

If you like Brooks

Boys

• Felix#175“happy, lucky”^*
• Theo#82Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #405 in 2015, #82 in 2025
• Otto#277“wealth, riches”^*
• Arlo#148Editor’s note More popular in England & Wales than the US: #15 vs #148 in 2025
• Waylon#56Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #222 in 2015, #56 in 2025
• Ellis#243“benevolent, kind”^*

For a sister

• Ariella#174Form of Ariel, meaning “lion of God”^*
• Ophelia#264possibly “help, aid, succour”^*
• Catalina#111Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #325 in 2015, #111 in 2025
• Esther#119“star”^*
• Mabel#201“lovable”^*
• Elsie#123Diminutive of Alison, meaning “of noble kind”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under where there are enough, topped up with common names whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Brooks’s. Place names are only included if they are in the top 300. Rank is US 2025.