Is Brooklyn a County? Yes, It’s Kings County

Yes, Brooklyn is a county. At the state level it’s called Kings County, and it covers the exact same territory and population as the Borough of Brooklyn. Every Brooklyn resident is automatically a Kings County resident. The two names describe one place through two different lenses: the city government calls it Brooklyn, and the state government calls it Kings County.1Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Home – The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office

Same Land, Two Names

Brooklyn and Kings County aren’t overlapping jurisdictions. They’re the same place. New York City’s government refers to the area as the Borough of Brooklyn for municipal purposes like sanitation, fire, and police. New York State’s government refers to the same area as Kings County for purposes like courts, prosecution, and elections. Both names are official. Which one you use depends on who you’re dealing with.

This dual identity isn’t unique to Brooklyn. Each of New York City’s five boroughs lines up one-to-one with a county. Brooklyn just happens to be the pair where the two names look nothing alike, which is why the question comes up so often.

When to Use “Brooklyn” and When to Use “Kings County”

A simple rule covers most situations: use Brooklyn for mail and city business, and use Kings County for state government and the courts.

  • Mailing address. The U.S. Postal Service uses “Brooklyn, NY” as the city designation on envelopes, packages, and shipping labels.2United States Postal Service. Find USPS Post Offices and Locations Near Me
  • Property records. Deeds, mortgages, and leases are indexed under the county framework, so property records reference Kings County.
  • Court filings. Any lawsuit, criminal case, or petition filed in Brooklyn moves through Kings County courts, and legal papers need to identify the county correctly.3New York Courts. Kings County Supreme Court, Civil Term
  • State forms and jury summons. When a form asks for your county, the answer is Kings. Writing “Brooklyn” on a state form can cause processing delays because the state doesn’t recognize borough names as county names.
  • Criminal prosecution. Criminal cases in Brooklyn are handled by the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, which also brands itself publicly as the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.1Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Home – The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office

No one calls it Kings County in casual conversation, and plenty of lifelong Brooklynites don’t encounter the county name until a jury summons shows up or they need to record a deed. For anything that touches the state legal system, Kings County is the name that matters.

Why the County Name Still Exists

Before 1898, Brooklyn was its own independent city and ranked as the third or fourth largest in the United States.4NYC125. Consolidation Timeline – Section: A Word About Population On January 1, 1898, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island merged into the City of Greater New York.5NYC Archaeological Repository: The Nan A. Rothschild Research Center. Consolidation of the Five-Borough City

The consolidation layered a new borough system over the existing county boundaries. Brooklyn stopped being an independent city, but Kings County stayed. The state still needed its county framework for courts, elections, and prosecution, while the city handled municipal services. That arrangement has held for over 125 years. The New York State Constitution requires every county to elect its own district attorney, which is one reason the county structure couldn’t simply dissolve into the new city.6Justia Law. New York Constitution Article XIII – Public Officers – Section 13

The Other Four Borough-County Pairs

Brooklyn gets asked about most because Kings County sounds nothing like Brooklyn. The other four work the same way:7New York Family History. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages

  • Manhattan is New York County.
  • The Bronx is Bronx County, the only pair where the two names match.
  • Queens is Queens County.
  • Staten Island is Richmond County. The borough was officially called the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when it was renamed Staten Island, but the county name stayed Richmond.

Each pair covers identical territory. The borough name handles city business, the county name handles state business, and Brooklyn is simply the pair where you can’t guess one name from the other.