Named in 1878 after the English seaside resort of Brighton.
Henry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen gave the resort the name ‘Brighton Beach’ in 1878, as an allusion to the English resort city of Brighton. Until then the area was part of the ‘Middle Division’ of the town of Gravesend, the only English settlement among the six original towns of Kings County. The station opened on 2 July 1878, on an excursion railroad.