Boy name origins & meanings French : Thicket Boy name variations Bruce Brooce Broose Brucey Brucy Brue Bruis Family name origins & meanings German : from a short form of the medieval personal name Ambrosius (see Ambrose). Perhaps from the Slavic stem Brus (as in Brusky or the place name Bruschewitz).Swedish : possibly from a Nordic personal name Bruse, from Old Norse brúsi ‘he-goat’.