This is an English 'lost' village locational surname. Recorded as Brookshaw and Bruckshaw, it is believed to originate from a place in the county of Cheshire, which according to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardlsey, writing in the year 1880, had completely disappeared. The name originates from the pre 7th century Olde English words 'brok-sceag', meaning a wood by a brook. A brook was not necessarily a stream, it could mean any stretch of water, or even a marsh. 'Lost' villages are a feature of the British Isles. It is estimated that at least three thousand modern surnames do originate from such places of which the only reminder of their existence lies in the surviving surname. Locational surnames are also 'from' names. That is to say names that were given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else, the easiest way to identy such strangers being to call them by the name of the place from whence they came. In this case early recordings include John Brookshawe of Prestbury in Cheshire, in 1574, and Thomas Bruckshaw, who married Ann Waterer at St Georges chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster, in 1775..