Brooklyn is a given name that has increased in popularity for girls in the United States and Canada in recent years. It has occasionally been used as a name in honor of Brooklyn, the New York City borough, but is usually regarded as simply a combination of the names Brook or Brooke, a name derived from an English surname meaning "one who lives near a brook" and the suffix -lyn, which is an element in other popular contemporary names in the United States such as Kaitlyn.
The name was the 67th most popular name for baby girls in the United States in 2006 and was the 16th most popular name for baby girls born in British Columbia, Canada in 2006. Spelling variants include, but are not limited to, Brook Lynn, Brooke Lynn, Brookelynn, Brookelynne, Brooklynn and Brooklynne.
The son of soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, AKA "Posh Spice", who was born in 1999, was also given that name. Brook Lynn Ashton, a character on the American soap opera General Hospital, may also have raised the profile of the name.
Famous quotes containing the word brooklyn:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)