Few Nebraska towns changed names as often as Brock. First settled in the 1850s, the community was successively known as Dayton, Shroaf’s Ford, Howard, Bradley’s Bridge, Podunk, and Clinton before finally taking the name Brock — after a railroad official — when the Missouri Pacific line was built through in 1881–82.

Brock is home to about 122 residents (2020 Census) today, a quiet Nemaha County village whose most distinctive claim to fame remains that remarkable string of earlier names.

Brock, population 122, is a Nemaha County village notable for having cycled through six different names — Dayton, Shroaf’s Ford, Howard, Bradley’s Bridge, Podunk, and Clinton — before the railroad settled on “Brock” in 1881–82.