This is an English locational surname from the village of Brooksby in the county of Lincolnshire. The place itself was first recorded in the year 1086 in the famous Domesday Book of England. It does translate as the farm (bi) on the brook, or in this case the River Wreak. Brook in its original meaning could be any stretch of water such as a lake or pond as well as something that 'flowed'. The original suffix bi was the Scandanavian word for a farm, and it is is interesting that the Viking influence, mainly associated with Yorkshire and East Anglia, penetrated so far into Middle England. It is not clear as to when the surname was first recorded but Sense Brokesby was recorded at Melton Mowbray on April 25th 1547 when she married Lawrence Baker, whilst Ruthe Brookesbie was christened at Peckleton on July 23rd 1611, and the exotically named Nehiamiah Brookesby was a christening witness at St Martins Leicester, on July 10th 1648.