Kru
Masculine
Kru is given to both — 595 boys and 36 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Kru is a West African people and a word for a ship's crew — the Kru of Liberia were so sought after as sailors that the word may descend from them.
How old is the name Kru?
Kru first appears in US birth records in 2008 — 17 years ago. The typical Kru is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Kru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kru most popular?
Kru peaked in 2024, reaching #1862 nationally. Today it ranks #1976, 114 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kru
Our story of Kru is a story of two words that met and were assumed to be one. The Kru of the Liberian coast were famous as seafarers and were recruited onto European ships for two centuries; the English 'crew' is older and unrelated, but the coincidence was noticed and repeated. Kru appears in the American registers in the 2010s in very small numbers, most likely as a respelling of Crew. Both facts are worth having.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The Kru are a people of Liberia and Ivory Coast whose name's own origin is unrecovered. The English 'crew' is from the French creue and predates the contact, so the folk connection is probably backwards. A second route treats Kru as a modern American respelling of Crew or Cruz.
Pronouncing Kru
KROO
One syllable. Kru, Crew and Crue are homophones; only the spelling differs.
Nicknames for Kru
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
- 2008
- Most boys named
- 202486 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1862reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −10.5%77 in 2025, from 86
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.
Kru in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Crew in English — related form
- Crue in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Krus among us
people named Kru are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 22,183 born in 2025 was named Kru
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kru
- #1976
- Kru on the 2025 chart
- #747
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kru went to 77 boys in 2025, but Cru 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 — 1,229 places above the chart.
- Cru105
- Kru77
About 1 boy in 9,385 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 22,183 for Kru 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 Dionne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kru's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dionne climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dionne's path sketches the road Kru is walking now.
Kru is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kru is headed
Kru looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 47% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Kru beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kru in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, one syllable, and about as short as a name gets.
- The Kru seafaring history is a genuinely interesting thing to carry.
- It is easy to say once heard.
- There is no documented meaning as a given name.
- Crew and Cruz are both close enough to be substituted.
- It will need spelling out every single time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kru
Masculine · #1976 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Krus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Kru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kru?
- Kru is one of 2 recorded spellings. Cru is the more common one — 105 births in 2025 against 77 for Kru.
- How popular is the name Kru in 2025?
- Kru ranks #1976 among US boy names in 2025, with 77 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kru?
- About 1 in every 22,183 US boys born in 2025 was named Kru — 77 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kru with classmates?
- Kru will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kru
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Donte#1976 · Davon#1976 · Jacobo#1976 · Khyree#1976 · Winter#1976 · Jaleel#1976 · Arrow#1976 · Yug#1976
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kru? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kru and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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