Bruce
Top 1000
About Bruce
Bruce is a Norman place name made famous by the Scottish king Robert the Bruce, who won Scotland's independence from England in the fourteenth century. Hugely popular in the 40s and 50s, it has since declined in popularity, but nevertheless remains in the US Top 600 and has featured consistently in the latter end of the England and Wales Top 1000 since the 90s.
A nature connected choice, meaning "from the brushwood thicket" or "from the willow land", Bruce has a plethora of famous connections: Lee, Springsteen, Dern, Forsyth, and Willis being just a few. Noteworthy fictional Bruces include Batman's Bruce Wayne, Marvel's Bruce Banner, and the shark from Finding Nemo, while in Australia, the name was at one time Bruce was so widespread, it became a nickname for any Ozzie man.
Strong and solid, but perhaps a little too close to word brute for some, could Bruce regain some of its lost popularity in coming years, riding on the back of word name Truce? Time will tell, but an interesting alternative is Brix, the Normandy place name where the Bruce family originated.
As of October 2026, Bruce ranked #536 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #25 in 1952, Nameberry popularity #208.
Editor's take: The name Bruce is a boy's name of French, Scottish, English origin meaning "from the brushwood thicket".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #401 | 773 | 402.4 |
| 2015 | #404 | 765 | 399.1 |
| 2016 | #440 | 702 | 369.9 |
| 2017 | #429 | 721 | 389.5 |
| 2018 | #475 | 612 | 337 |
| 2019 | #471 | 624 | 347.8 |
| 2020 | #498 | 587 | 340.1 |
| 2021 | #536 | 548 | 313.2 |
| 2022 | #563 | 526 | 301.3 |
| 2023 | #541 | 547 | 319.8 |
| 2024 | #537 | 553 | 321 |
| 2025 | #536 | 558 | 326.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Bruce.
- Dennis
- Curtis
- Raymond
- Douglas
- Marvin
- Lionnel
- Carl
- Russell
- Phillip
- Kenneth
- Wayne
- Roy
- Martin
- Tom
- Eddie
- Scott
- Neil
- Allen
- Alvin
- Jeffrey
Bruce on lists
Famous Bruces
- (Walter) Bruce Willis
American actor
- Bruce Timm
American artist, character designer, animator, writer, producer and actor
- Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen
American musician nicknamed "The Boss"
- Bruce Lee (Jun
fan), American actor and martial artist
- Bruce MacLeish Dern
American actor
- (William) Bruce Jenner
birth name of Caitlyn Marie Jenner, American decathlete and TV personality
- Bruce Raymond Gradkowski
American football player
- Bruce William Miller III
American football player
- Bruce Lorne Campbell
American actor
- Bruce Greenwood
Canadian actor and producer
- Bruce Joseph Forsyth
Johnson, British TV presenter
- Bruce Dickinson
British lead singer of band Iron Maiden
- Bruce Leslie McLaren
New Zealand race car designer and driver
- Bruce Smith
American NFL Hall of Fame football player
- Bruce Seldon
American boxer
- Bruce William Boxleitner
American actor
- Bruce Beresford
Australian film director
- Bruce Cockburn
Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer,songwriter
- Bruce Hornsby
American pianist
- Bruce Kulick
American musician of KISS and Grand Funk Railroad
- Bruce Arians
American NFL head coach
- Bruce Bochy
American baseball manager
- Robert the Bruce aka Robert I
King of Scots
- Bruce Julian Knight Granofsky (b. 2019)
son of actor Krysten Ritter and musician Adam Granduciel
Bruce in pop culture
- Bruce Wayne aka Batman
DC Comics superhero
- Bruce Banner aka The Incredible Hulk
Marvel Comics superhero
- Bruce the Shark
character in "Finding Nemo"
- Bruce Nolan
main character in 2003 film "Bruce Almighty"
- Bruce Patman
character in "Sweet Valley High"
- Bruce Picard
character in "Sims" series
- Bruce
character on TV's "Grandfathered"
- Bruce Goodman
character in video game 'Ace Attorney'
- Bruce
minor character on TV's Family Guy
- Bruce
one of the Delightful Children From Down The Lane on animated series "Codename: Kids Next Door"
- The Bruces Sketch
Monty Python's Flying Circus
- Bruce Bogtrotter
character in "Matilda"
- Mr. Bruce
chihuahua dog in the 2019 film "Hustlers"
- Bruce Maddox
character in the TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation & later on Star Trek: Picard , Bruce Maddox was a male Human 24th century Starfleet cyberneticist, one of the most prominent Federation researchers in that field in the late 24th century. He worked in the Cybernetics Division of the Daystrom Institute and, in 2365, was the Associate Chair of Robotics. He would later be promoted to Chair of Robotics.
- Bruce
a deer villager from Animal Crossing
- Bruce Ramsey
from “I Love Lucy”