I first became interested in the surname Brockbank when I discovered that my great, great grandmother's death certificate stated that her second husband was a John Brockbank. Despite extensive searches I could find no record of their marriage. It was now my genealogical brick wall. Despite searching extensively the family I could not find a marriage, though I did discover they had their banns called just once. Much later I turned my attention to her sister-in-law I discovered that she too had married someone with the surname of Brockbank. By now I had researched the surname and knew it to be rare, so clearly there was more to this. It eventually transpired that John Brockbank was actually my great, great grandmother's nephew (thus the marriage at the time was prohibited on the grounds of relationship, even though they weren't biologically related) and so my interest in the surname took hold. 

Although my study is very new I look forward to hearing from anyone with the surname Brockbank or Brocklebank. 

Other variants of the surname Brockbank include Brocklebank, so Brocklebank is also a surname researched as part of this study. 

Reaney mentions in his book ‘The Origin of Surnames’ that surnames with the word ‘Brock’ comes from ‘brock- a young stag’ and so the names are from an animal of the chase.  L G Pine in his book  ‘The Story of Surnames’ suggests that the name was originally a nickname which later became a surname and that ‘Brock is only another name for badger’. Henry Harrison in his book ‘Surnames of the United Kingdom’ states that Brockbank is an English surname ‘dweller at the badger bank’ and that Brocklebank also an English surname is ‘dweller at the badger-hole bank’.

Certainly in northern England the word 'Brock' is used for a badger. 

The 1881 census for England shows that there were about 1,000 people in England with the surname Brockbank. By 2014 the numbers had hardly increased with just 1448 people name Brockbank in England and only 2,693 worldwide. 

The name does appear to be a north-western name as in 1881 the majority of those bearing the surname Brockbank, some 689 people, all resided in Lancashire, with a further 94 found in Cumberland. Many of those with the surname can be found in the area of Furness.