Short form of Russell, from Old French 'rous' meaning red-haired or fox-colored.
Russ began life as a diminutive of Russell, which itself arrived in England with the Normans as a nickname rooted in the Old French "rousel" — the diminutive of "rous," meaning red. It was a color name, describing the warm reddish-brown of autumn leaves or a fox's coat, and it was applied with affectionate frequency to anyone with red or auburn hair. The surname Russell became well established in British aristocratic families, most famously the Dukes of Bedford, and Russ as a standalone given name began appearing in American usage in the nineteenth century as surnames increasingly crossed into first-name territory.
In the twentieth century Russ acquired a distinctly mid-American, masculine energy. Russ Tamblyn danced and tumbled his way through Hollywood musicals of the 1950s. Russ Meyer became a notorious cult filmmaker.
The name features in the American vernacular as the kind of name a no-nonsense hardware store owner might carry — straightforward, friendly, unremarkable in the best sense. Its brevity gave it real staying power: one syllable, no ambiguity, no elaborate spelling variants to manage. Today Russ sits in an interesting position.
As a full given name it has the quality of a recovered antique — not dated so much as quietly unfashionable, which gives it a certain cool among parents who want a short masculine name that doesn't feel engineered. It retains its warmth and its etymological connection to the color of fire. Rap artist Russ (Russ Vitale) has given the name a contemporary cultural touchpoint for younger generations, demonstrating that a single-syllable, no-frills name carries its own understated authority.