From Breukelen, a Dutch town whose name means "marsh land" — broken land; marsh land. The New York borough was named by Dutch settlers in 1646.
Brooklyn ranks 118th among American girls in 2025, with 2,337 born that year. Its best year was 2011, when 7,257 babies were given the name, ranking 21st. The typical living American called Brooklyn is about 14 years old today. It is relatively most common in North Dakota, where it accounts for 0.20% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.