Bronson is an English surname that means "son of the brown one" or "son of Brown", a nickname for someone with brown hair or skin. The actor Charles Bronson gave the name a tough-guy image in the 1970s. In the United States Bronson has stayed in the lower half of the top 1000 for most of this century, peaking at number 667 in 2015, and ranks number 1046 in 2025.