Cruz
Meaning
"cross"
The story
Cruz is the Spanish and Portuguese word for cross, ultimately from Latin crux. As a personal name it belongs to the Christian image of the cross and also to a large surname tradition, including families whose names came from places or devotional expressions containing Cruz. Modern English-speaking families use it chiefly for boys, while edited name records also document feminine use in Spanish. The US curve never quite disappears: it has a low early presence, rises briefly in the 1920s and 1930s, settles back for several decades, then climbs from the 1990s and holds a high band in the 2010s and 2020s. That long uneven history matters because Cruz can sound like a sleek modern one-syllable choice in English while remaining an ordinary and deeply rooted word in Spanish and Portuguese. Its meaning is concrete and religious, not an invented promise of courage or travel.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Cruz peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
395 people · the #15,725 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 500,000 · median age 46
Among people named Cruz living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Cruz
Most people given the name Cruz in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Cruz deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Cruz truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Cruz fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Cruz fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Cruz to your family’s tree →