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Summary
- No one named Brooke appears in the Bible, and the name has no Hebrew or Greek meaning.
- Brooke is a variant of Brook, an English surname for someone who lived near a brook, from Old English broc, “flowing stream.”
- It came into use as a first name in the 1950s and was made more popular by the actress Brooke Shields.
- In English Bibles “brook” most often translates the Hebrew nachal, a stream or the valley it runs through.
- Elijah hid by the brook Cherith (1 Kings 17:3–7); Jesus crossed the brook Kidron on the night of his arrest (John 18:1).
- Brooke peaked at 43rd among American girls’ names in 2003 and ranked 313th in 2025.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Behind the Name, “Brooke” and “Brook,” with United States popularity figures from Social Security Administration data. https://www.behindthename.com/name/brooke
- Online Etymology Dictionary, “brook (n.).” https://www.etymonline.com/word/brook
- Alfred Ely Day, “Brook,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), on Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/topical/b/brook.htm
- Strong’s Hebrew 5158 (nachal) and 650 (aphiq), and Strong’s Greek 5493 (cheimarros), Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5158.htm
- “Kidron Valley,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidron_Valley
- Scripture quotations: 1 Kings 17:4, 7; John 18:1, English Standard Version; Psalm 42:1, King James Version, compared with the English Standard Version. Reference: 1 Kings 17:3–6.
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