Russ
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Short form of Russell, now also used as an independent given name
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɹɐs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Russ is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- CACanada≈1 in 9.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 19K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 23K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 464 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 9.6K (inferred from the name graph)
9,491 people, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Canada, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Short form of Russell, now also used as an independent given name. In some cases it may represent a transferred use of the surname Russ, from Old French rous ‘red’.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Russ counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 9,491 | 1 in 35K | 17K | Russ | 464 |
| CA Canada | #880 | ≈3,900 est. | ≈1 in 9.6K | 1 | Russ | 171 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈3,400 est. | ≈1 in 19K | 1.6K | Russ | 204 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 44K | listed | Russ | 19 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 23K | 1 | Russ | 133 |
| NZ New Zealand | #891 | ≈240 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Russ | 68 |
| SK Slovakia | — | ≈220 est. | ≈1 in 25K | 116 | — | — |
9,491 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); the il-grande-libro-nomi-bebe-2020 register; JÚĽŠ SAV — Databáza priezvisk na Slovensku (surname database, 1995 census). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Russ is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, Viking people
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
English: short form of RUSSELL , now also used as an independent given name. In some cases it may represent a transferred use of the surname Russ , from Old French rous red.
as a word
In Norwegian Nynorsk, last-semester high school student (or student at an institution of a similar education level), particularly one that takes part in associated celebrations and activities (often including heavily consuming alcohol)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of Ruß
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In gmq-osw, a horse (equine mammal)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Russ Saundersb. 1906USAmerican football player and assistant director (1906-1987)
- Russ Conwayb. 1913USactor (1913-2009)
- Russ Meyerb. 1922USAmerican film director and photographer (1922–2004)
- Russ Tamblynb. 1934USAmerican actor
- Russ Titelmanb. 1944USAmerican record producer and songwriter
- Russ Howardb. 1956CACanadian curler
- Russ Carnahanb. 1958USAmerican politician
- Russ Fulcherb. 1963USAmerican politician (born 1962)
- Russ J Kunb. 1975NRNauruan politician
- Russ Russob. 1975USAmerican actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 55 sources across 31 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 9.4K | #2,551 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1959 | 350 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1961 | 341 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1960 | 341 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 48 | #2,551 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 20 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 1991 | 9 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2023 | 5 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2023 | 1 | #2,230 |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1984 | 1 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2010 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001) | — | — | — |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Russ come from?
- Short form of Russell, now also used as an independent given name. In some cases it may represent a transferred use of the surname Russ, from Old French rous ‘red’. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- Is Russ a male or female name?
- Russ is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How do you pronounce Russ?
- A machine transcription gives /ɹɐs/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Russ mean?
- Recorded meaning: Short form of Russell, now also used as an independent given name.
- In which country does Russ have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 9.5 thousand people named Russ, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled russ.
- How common is the name Russ?
- In the United States, the national register counted 9,491 people named Russ in 2020, about 1 in 35 thousand residents.
- How common is Russ compared with other names?
- In Canada, Russ is the 880th most common given name of 188,338 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Russ?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/russThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Russ” — the 880th most common given name in Canada. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.