Bruce
Bruce is ranked 537th among boys in 2024 (553 births). Its best rank was 25th, in 1952.
- Rank in 2024
- #537up 4 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 5530.03% of boys
- Peak year
- 195614,660 births
- Best rank
- #25in 1952
- Since 1880
- 387,708people given the name
The story in the numbers
386,313 boys have been named Bruce in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1956, with 14,660 births — 0.69% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 553 births in 2024, against 14,660 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1955, and the 1950s alone account for 35%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 39 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,395 girls have also been given it, 0.36% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Bruce | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 499 | |
| 1890s | 618 | |
| 1900s | 836 | |
| 1910s | 5,577 | |
| 1920s | 13,179 | |
| 1930s | 24,119 | |
| 1940s | 72,096 | |
| 1950s | 136,459 | |
| 1960s | 74,637 | |
| 1970s | 21,127 | |
| 1980s | 14,335 | |
| 1990s | 7,900 | |
| 2000s | 5,536 | |
| 2010s | 6,634 | |
| 2020s | 2,761 |
In 1956, its biggest year
Bruce was the 33rd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1956 were Michael, James, Robert, David and John. See all of 1956.
Names that rose and fell with Bruce
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Garrypeak 1954
- Garypeak 1952
- Dennispeak 1952
- Donniepeak 1952
- Terrypeak 1957
- Danniepeak 1953
- Barrypeak 1962
- Butchpeak 1956
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.