View Message

Brooke
I know Brooke is a bit of an 80s/90s name to many, but to me it feels timeless. Do you think of it as dated? Have you met many girls named Brooke? I think it's really pretty, I love the sound. As far as I know it never made the top 30 and is slowly on its way out of the top 100. Brooke or Brook?
Archived Thread - replies disabled
vote up1

Replies

I see it as a bit dated, but not overly so, because it was never used in too high of volumes like Tiffany or Brittany or Ashley, that just scream, I was born in the 80s/90s.I've known two Brookes, they are both fantastically interesting women. I'm not a huge fan of the name, or the sound, but I can understand how the 'br' and the hard 'k' sound can be appealing.
vote up1
I like Brooke and it doesn't feel dated at all, but perhaps because it wasn't big here in the 80s/90sI know of two Brookes, One is 5 and one is 3, so it feels young and refreshing to me
vote up1
I really like it as a middle name. I've never met anybody called Brooke so i neither think of it as dated or timeless - it just kind of exists. I prefer Brooke, I'm not sure why, Brook looks somewhat incomplete :)
vote up1
Yes, I think it's a bit dated, but not overwhelmingly so. I know a Brooke who is 11. Brooke. The reasoning is a bit lame though. I love the imagery of Brook, but worry that if she were really chatty, I wouldn't be able to stop thinking "babbling brook" :)
vote up1
Brooke has been on my mind a lot recently. I'm not a fan of it but I don't mind it being used as a middle name. I don't care for it as a first name though.Brooke looks better than Brook.
vote up1
It's slightly dated, but I still like it. Brooke is a strong name that still works for someone who is very feminine.
vote up1
I know Brookes ranging from their 30s down to the 7-year-old Brooke who's in my son's class. It's pretty and has always sounded cool, calm, and collected to my ear. If it's dated, it's only a little bit so. I think it as a well-established modern name. There's nothing wrong with that. I prefer it spelled with the E. Brook is more word than name to me.
vote up1
I think it's nice. It's a little dated. I don't see how it could be timeless, since it's clearly a 20th century invention. Anyway, good little nature image. Better than Bächlein.Brooke or Brook? I don't know, I like both a lot. I tend to prefer my nature names literal, so I'd probably go with Brook.
vote up1
Is it a 20th century invention and nature name? I wondered. I mean, it does seem like that now, but I think it's more clearly a surname-name-turned-firstname. I get zero nature image from Brooke.
It has been "regularly if infrequently" used since the 1920s at least, according to my favorite name dictionary. When I googled I found Roberta Brooke Astor, who went by Brooke and was born 1902 (although she wasn't famous until much later). I'm challenging all who read this post to find earlier Brookes or Brooks!
vote up1
It's been in use as a first name since at least the 1840s here. I thought they'd all be boys, and they mostly are, but I'm fairly sure that Brooke Muriel Lacey, born 1856 in a suburb of London, was a girl. Ooh and Brook Hannah Baylis, b 1857
vote up1
To me it just feels timeless. Maybe because it's also a word, I don't know. I just don't think it will ever really feel dated. I don't think a name has to be very old to feel timeless. Juliet isn't that old (at least not nearly as old as Elizabeth) but feels timeless to me, same with Olivia and Miranda.I think it was used before 1902, but very rarely and mostly on guys (spelled Brook). Just a guess, I don't know how I could find them. Alexandra never made the top 1000 before 1914. I always thought that was weird. I wasn't commonly used in the US until the early 1980s. But I guess it was popular in England before and of course there are historic figures named Alexandra.

This message was edited 3/8/2013, 5:56 AM

vote up1
Seemed that way to me, glanced at charts, charts confirmed suspicion. I mean, people may have used it here and there earlier, but not in a way significant enough to compare to its late 20C usage that would ever distinguish it as "timeless." It was obscure before the 50s, and became mainstream in the following decades, and no earlier. But I suppose that's not really what you're asking, huh?Since it's basically an English word that means Brook, I feel every right to reclaim it as a nature name. To my mind it's about as naturey as Grace is puritan... ie not really, but, well, yes, in an obvious kind of way.
vote up1
I like it, too. I think it's got energy.I prefer Brooke to Brook.
vote up1
I hate the sound of it - only when I think about it. It's like a burp. It's just a shade away from Burke, which I think is so ugly it's funny. But Brooke is a name I've been hearing my whole life, since I first heard of Brooke Shields when she was a child actress in the 1970s, and when she was a model in her teens her image was pretty saturating. So I've always thought of Brooke as a fairly glammy, edgy sort of name, if not a classy one at all. And I don't really LIKE it, but I have no real problem with it. It's a good name.To me it has to have the E on the end to be a woman's personal name. Without the E it seems abrupt and tiny.I don't think it seems dated. It was never trendy enough. And Brooklyn is in, so Brooke can't really be out. I've never met any Brookes personally, that I can recall.

This message was edited 3/7/2013, 4:31 PM

vote up1
Have you ever heard of Brooke Burke? I happen to like Brooke, but I always thought her name sounded like a burp.

This message was edited 3/7/2013, 5:35 PM

vote up1
The name sounds familiar but I don't really know who she is. Brooke Burke definitely doesn't sound nice at all!
vote up1
She's a host on the E! channel, or something. She's pretty, but bland.
vote up1
I really dislike Burke as well, but Brooke sounds nice to me.
vote up1
I prefer Brooke. I have met a Brooklyn and she was very nice. Brooke is a type of water and its natural. I think it's better naming your child Brooke than River. The name doesn't stand out, unlike Maria or Julian so I don't like it.
vote up1
Your last sentence was, like, incoherent, man.
vote up1
Yeah, what was that? Didn't make a licka sense to me.
vote up1
I don't think Maria and Julian are particularly exciting. They're nice, decent names but they are pretty well used and mainstream as well.
vote up1