Croix is French for "cross," used as a surname and modern given name with Christian symbolism.
Croix is the French word for "cross," drawn directly into use as a given name and carrying with it centuries of religious, geographic, and heraldic meaning. The cross as a symbol predates Christianity — it appears in ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and pre-Columbian iconography — but in the Western tradition it is overwhelmingly associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, making Croix an implicitly devotional name in the tradition of other cross-derived names such as the Spanish Cruz, the Portuguese Cruz, and the Italian Croce. Geographic place names bearing the root are found throughout the French-speaking world: Sainte-Croix in Switzerland, Croix in northern France, and Sainte-Croix in the Caribbean.
As a given name in the English-speaking world, Croix is largely a contemporary American invention, part of a wave of French-word names that parents have adopted for their aesthetic and phonetic qualities — names like Chance, Bleu, and Beau that carry a certain borrowed Gallic sophistication. The name was propelled into public visibility when reality television personality Rob Dyrdek named his son Kodah Dash Dyrdek and when other celebrity parents chose similarly short, punchy, French-flavored names. Croix functions almost as an anglicized cousin of Cruz, which appeared in top-100 lists following David and Victoria Beckham naming their son Cruz in 2005.
For parents today, Croix offers a name that is short, bold, and visually striking on a page, with a spiritual undertone that feels more design-forward than overtly religious. Its rarity keeps it distinctive while its pronunciation — straightforwardly "Kwa" or sometimes anglicized as "Croy" — gives it an accessible confidence.