The name 'Brockhouse' comes from Old English brocc hús, referring to the interconnected tunnels made by badgers as a home, more usually called a 'sett'. As the name for a family of Hobbits 'Brockhouse' connects the idea of these badger tunnels with the holes made by Hobbits.
In real surnames, the element 'Brock' can have different interpretations (for example, it sometimes means 'brook') but Tolkien is explicit that he intends it to mean 'badger' in the name 'Brockhouse'. The same element appears in the place-name 'Brockenbores', which in fact has a derivation very close to 'Brockhouse'. It might be tempting to see a connection between the family of Brockhouse and the village of Brockenbores, but we have no evidence for such a connection beyond the similarity of their names.
|