Cru
Masculine · “a growth”
Cru is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,553 boys against 35 girls since 1880.
Cru is a French wine word — a cru is a vineyard site, from croître, to grow, which is why grand cru means the growth rather than the wine.
How old is the name Cru?
Cru first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Cru is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Cru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cru most popular?
Cru peaked in 2022, reaching #1330 nationally. Today it ranks #1609, 279 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From croître to Cru
Our story of Cru
Our story of Cru is a story of three letters that several words could claim. French wine writing has used cru for centuries to mean a growth — a named vineyard and everything it produces. English has crew, from a Norman word for reinforcements. Spanish has Cruz, the cross. Cru appears in the American registers in the 2010s, three letters long, with no documented route from any of them and an audible resemblance to all three. That is the whole honest account.
Meaningscholars disagree
a growth, a vineyard site
The likeliest reading is the French cru, 'growth', the past participle of croître, 'to grow' — used in wine of a specific vineyard and its produce. A second route treats Cru as a respelling of Crew or Cruz. Neither is documented as the source of the American name.
How the name formed
- croître
- cru
- Cru
Related forms: Cru · Crew · Cruz
Pronouncing Cru
KROO
One syllable. Cru, Crew and Crue are homophones in English; French rounds the vowel differently.
Nicknames for Cru
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1990
- Most boys named
- 2022141 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1330reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −20.5%105 in 2025, from 132
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cru in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cru in French — same name
- Crew in English — related form
- Cruz in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Crus among us
people named Cru are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,267 born in 2025 was named Cru
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cru
- #1609
- Cru on the 2025 chart
- #747
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cru went to 105 boys in 2025, but Kru is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 182, which makes it the 747th most-given boys’ name of the year — 862 places above the chart.
- Cru105
- Kru77
About 1 boy in 9,385 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 16,267 for Cru itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kendric test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cru's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kendric climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kendric's path sketches the road Cru is walking now.
Cru sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cru is headed
Cru should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cru beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cru in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The vineyard-growth meaning is concrete and genuinely elegant.
- Three letters, one syllable, and never misheard.
- It is genuinely rare and immediately distinctive.
- No route to the name is documented and the resemblances are to several words.
- Crew and Cruz are both close enough to be substituted.
- It is very new and has almost no record behind it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Cru
Masculine · #1609 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Crus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Cru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cru?
- Cru is the most-used spelling in US records — 105 of the 182 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kru.
- How popular is the name Cru in 2025?
- Cru ranks #1609 among US boy names in 2025, with 105 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cru?
- About 1 in every 16,267 US boys born in 2025 was named Cru — 105 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cru with classmates?
- Cru will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cru
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keagan#1609 · Valen#1609 · Cristobal#1609 · Steve#1609 · Phineas#1609 · Zade#1609 · Karam#1609 · Destin#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cru? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cru and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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