Cruise
A word associated with traveling at a moderate and comfortable speed.
Name Census estimates that about 398 living Americans carry the first name Cruise. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cruise today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cruise births was 2023 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cruise. 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.
People living today
398
~ 1 in 861,192 Americans
Peak year
2023
26 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,943
Tracked since 1987
Popularity
Cruise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cruise from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 138 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Cruise remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cruise 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 Cruise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cruises live
Origin
Meaning and history of Cruise
The name Cruise is an English surname that later became used as a given name. It is derived from the Middle English word "cruisen," which means "to sail or journey about." This word originated from the Old French word "cruisir," which comes from the Dutch word "kruisen," meaning "to cross" or "to cruise."
The name Cruise is believed to have originated as an occupational surname for someone who worked on ships or boats, perhaps as a sailor or a captain. It may have also been given to someone who lived near a crossroads or a place where two roads intersected.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Cruise as a surname dates back to the 13th century in England. In the Hundred Rolls of 1273, a man named Reginald le Cruiser was mentioned as a resident of Oxfordshire.
In the 16th century, the name Cruise appeared in several historical records, including the Lay Subsidy Rolls of 1524, which listed a Thomas Cruse in Somerset, England.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Cruise was Cruise O'Nolan, an Irish writer and satirist who lived from 1917 to 1966. He is best known for his novel "At Swim-Two-Birds," which is considered a masterpiece of metafiction.
Another notable person with the first name Cruise was Cruise R. Walsh, an American businessman and philanthropist who lived from 1903 to 1982. He was the founder of the Cruise Companies, a highly successful conglomerate of businesses in the automotive industry.
In the realm of sports, Cruise Whitfield was an American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1982 to 1991. He was a member of the Detroit Pistons team that won the NBA championship in 1989.
Cruise Bobby, a Canadian actor and filmmaker, is another notable person with this first name. Born in 1965, he is best known for his roles in films such as "Highway 61" and "The Tracey Fragments."
Lastly, Cruise Wilkinson was a British actor and playwright who lived from 1923 to 2007. He was known for his work in television and theater, including his role in the popular British soap opera "Coronation Street."
People
Cruise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cruise as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cruise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cruise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 398 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cruise 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 861,192 US residents.
Is Cruise a common name?
We classify Cruise as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 403 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cruise most popular?
The single biggest year for Cruise was 2023, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cruise is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cruise a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cruise 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.
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.