Brooks is an English surname for someone who lived by a brook and means "of the brook" or "stream dweller". It has long been familiar in the United States through the Brooks Brothers clothing company and baseball legend Brooks Robinson, and it moved into first-name use with the taste for crisp one-syllable surnames. Brooks ranked number 707 in the United States in 2000, climbed from number 233 in 2015 into the top 100 in 2020 and reached number 64 among boys in 2025, its highest rank ever.