The term was invented and popularized by Barney Stinson, a character from the television show How I Met Your Mother.

Katherine Connor Martin, head of content creation at Oxford Dictionaries, recognized Stinson as "the quintessence of a certain iteration of the contemporary bro".

The notion of an unwritten set of rules that govern the relationship between straight male friends is present in modern American popular culture at least since 1991.

"[5] At the end of each episode, a vanity card is used to display a random rule from the Bro Code, similar to what is done on Chuck Lorre–produced shows.

[citation needed] The Bro Code (As shown in The Bro Code: As seen on CBS's How I Met Your Mother): "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for Bros to settle a dispute, decent respect to the opinions of the Bro-Kind requires that they should declare the clauses which impel them to argue, Though prudence says it's probably a chick.