Bruce
From the Gaelic meaning "brush wood thicket" or "the willowy one".
Name Census estimates that about 267,607 living Americans carry the first name Bruce. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bruce today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bruce births was 1956 (14,693 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bruce. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Bruce with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bruce is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,395 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Bruce have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
268K
~ 1 in 1,281 Americans
Peak year
1956
14,693 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#537
Tracked since 1880
Census
Bruce in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 267,816 people with the first name Bruce, which placed it at #201 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#201
National first-name rank
People counted
268K
267,816 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
88.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bruce
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bruce is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Hispanic (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Bruce described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Bruce at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.9% · 229,979
- Black or African American7.4% · 19,831
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 6,549
- Two or more races2.1% · 5,726
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 4,230
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,501
Gender
Gender distribution for Bruce
Out of the 387,708 babies given the name Bruce since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Bruce as a male name
- Ranked #537 in 2024
- 553 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (14,660 births)
Bruce as a female name
- Ranked #13,736 in 1995
- 5 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1964 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bruce appears almost entirely male. Of the 267,817 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Bruce: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bruce from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 136,788 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bruce by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Bruce during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bruces live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Bruce, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,496 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bruce
The name Bruce is derived from an Old North French word "brusque", meaning "wooded" or "brushwood". It emerged as a surname in Medieval France and later became used as a masculine given name in England, Scotland, and other parts of the British Isles.
The earliest recorded use of Bruce as a surname dates back to the 11th century, with the Norman family Brus, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. The most famous member of this family was Robert the Bruce, King of Scots (1274-1329), who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against England.
In the late Middle Ages, the name Bruce began to be used as a first name, particularly in Scotland and northern England. One of the earliest recorded instances is Bruce of Annandale (c. 1215-1295), a Scottish nobleman and one of the claimants to the Scottish throne during the Great Cause.
As a first name, Bruce has been borne by several notable figures throughout history. These include Bruce Goff (1904-1982), an influential American architect known for his organic and unconventional designs. Another is Bruce Lee (1940-1973), the legendary Hong Kong American martial artist, actor, and filmmaker who helped popularize martial arts movies in the West.
Other famous individuals named Bruce include Bruce Springsteen (born 1949), the American singer-songwriter and rock icon known for his poetic lyrics and energetic stage performances. Bruce Wayne is the fictional alter-ego of the DC Comics superhero Batman, created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane in 1939.
Bruce Nauman (born 1941) is an American artist renowned for his pioneering work in sculpture, performance art, and video art. He is considered one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Bruce
People
Bruce + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bruce as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bruce: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bruce?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 267,607 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bruce going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,281 US residents.
Is Bruce a common name?
We classify Bruce as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 387,708 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bruce most popular?
The single biggest year for Bruce was 1956, when 14,693 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bruce is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bruce in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 267,816 people with the name Bruce, or 88.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #201 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Bruce in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Bruce?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bruce appears almost entirely male. Of the 267,817 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Bruce?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bruce is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Hispanic (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Bruce most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bruce in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.9% (229,979 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Bruce in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bruce a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Bruce in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Bruce still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bruce in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Bruce can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Bruce?
You can see how many people share the name Bruce on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.