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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,148 members
    • 2,066 studies
    • 7,332 surnames

Broket One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Broket   

Variants: Brochet, Brockatt, Brocket, Brockett, Brockette, Brockit, Brokett

Category:  3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.

Website: brockett.info/

Guild hosted website:  broket.one-name.net

DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/groups/brockett/about

Contact: Dr Adrian Brockett


About the study

The Broket one-name study has been known as The Broket Archive since its first incarnation as a website in 2004 and it still is known by that name. It had the URL http://www.brockett.info and links to that often appear in web searches. But as from 30 November 2025 it is in its 3rd online version with the URL https://broket.one-name.net.

This 3rd version will graduallly incorporate the research from the 2nd and 1st versions, but new discoveries are also being added, especially records from the 12-17th centuries, and records about African American Brokets.

It aspires to rigorous academic research principles and evidentiary proof throughout, see the section on 'Evidence'.

It It is built entirely with HTML5 and CSS3, providing a stable, durable framework, which someone else in future can easily take over and at no cost.

Variant names

The name nowadays is principally spelt Brockett and Brocket, but other variations exist, and scribal errors have been numerous. An ancient variation was Brochet, which is now found mostly in mainland Europe in France. The name Bracket/t is sometimes a variation of Brocket/t but is mostly a separate, and more numerous, name. A notable Brockett/Brackett variation was with the name of the early the 17th C immigrant to New Haven (in the States). Trying to track down his origin in England has been a major driver of this Broket research, and indeed still is. Bricket/t is almost invariably a different name, and quite rightly there is a separate one-name study devoted to it. The German name Brokate and the Italian name Brocato could be considered variations, but when is a variation a separate name? 

Name origin

Records of the name Broket survive back to the late 12th C, in both Normandy and England. Since the name is also a word, which was in use in both places then and before, the name may well also have been used earlier, and its earliest bearers probably received it as a nickname. The early guru of surname origins, Reaney, who was a philologist rather than a genealogist, suggested that the name Brocard/Brochard was the precursor of Broket. It is an interesting idea and it is explored in this Broket study. So far no genealogical or actual connection has been found. 

Historical occurrences of the name

No information about living people without their permission is to be found here. So historical occurrences are the Broket Archive itself and can be found throughout.

Name frequency

If the https://forebears.io/ website is anything to go by - and their sources aren't easy to ascertain -  as of 2014 there were up to  7,000 people worldwide who put 'Brockett', 'Brocket' or 'Brockette' on forms which require a surname. But precise numbers are impossible to ascertain. In earlier centuries the numbers were of course far smaller, and as far as conducting a one-name study is concerned, 'Broket' is a Goldilocks name: there are not too many to get overwhelmed, nor too few to get bored. It is just right :)

Distribution of the name

Of the roughly 7,000 people with the name worldwide in 2014 between 4 and 5,000 were in the United States, followed by about 700 in the UK, 300 or so in Australasia, the same in S Africa, and 50 in Jamaica.

This compares with the 16,000 or so people in 2014 with the name Bracket/t, of which over 15,000 were in the United States, 350 in Jamaica, less than 200 in the UK, and scarcely 30 in Australasia. And the estimate for the name Brochet was about 5,000 in France, 100 in Canada, 65 in the USA and 15 in England.

Data

The Broket Archive aspires to rigorous academic research principles and evidentiary proof throughout, see the section on 'Evidence'.

DNA

The Brockett Y-DNA project has been going since 2000, providing numerous fascinating and revealing insights about the various unrelated groupings of people with the name, see the FTDNA external page.

Links

The website has numerous links throughout, but care has been taken to cite only reliable and secure ones. 

Contact Details

Dr Adrian Brockett

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Program
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