The settlement grew after it was one of the original railway stations on the Great Southern Railway when the railway opened in 1889, and was gazetted a townsite in 1899. In 1926, through the Boyup Brook-Cranbrook Railway Act 1926, a railway connection from the Donnybrook–Katanning railway to the Great Southern Railway was approved, which would have connected Cranbrook to Boyup Brook by rail. Construction of this line was started but never completed.[3][4]
The name is taken from the town of Cranbrook in Kent, England, about 65 kilometres south east of London. It is believed to have been named by Mr J A Wright, who was manager of the Western Australian Land Company which built the railway.[5]
Two other gazetted townsites are located within the locality of Cranbrook, Pootenup and Tunney. Both are at the eastern border of the locality and shire and the area of the gazetted townsites stretches into the neighboring Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup.[7][8]