First, the name is of Spanish origin. From the Charter of Albocacer, we learn that the name was given to three knights of King Jaime [James]. According to the Charter, the brothers were rough in their ways and so the name was given.

Spanish genealogists attribute the name's meaning as someone who is course in manners or brusque. This is documented in the Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada Euro Americana [ca. 1931] which defines the name as elonging to someone who is rough or crude.

Many of us believe that the name Brusca is a word for a type of brush. In the Lazio Province of Italy (between Rome and Naples), brusca is defined as a dialect word for a hard brush used to groom horses. This is documented in Carlo Volpe's book Il dialetto di Priverno.

The Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada Euro Americana also defines the word as fuel wood or brush wood used for combustion [kindling].

In my father's family, they always thought the name Brusca meant butcher's broom. The Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada Euro Americana also defines brusco as a type of plant (with the Latin name bruscus) known in English as kneeholly. Kneeholly, by the way, has another more common name: butcher's broom. Interesting... According to the text, a bay leaf like spice derivative from the kneeholly plant is also called brusco.

The Enciclopedia Italiana [1938] cites brusca as a parasitic fungus which attacks olive trees. The Dictionario Critico Etimologico de la Lengua Castellana [1954] defines brusca as a word of Catalonian or perhaps Celtic origin. This dictionary says the name comes from an earlier root word borusca. The word has several meanings including little wood; in Venezuela the word is the name of a variety of plants; the word brusca is also used in Cuba and Puerto Rico; brusca also has nautical uses. The dictionary references the Catalonian use to the twelfth century. Celtic sources include vrusc and gwrysg. Brusco, according to the text, is a derivative of Brusca.