Ruslan
Masculine · “lion”
Ruslan is a Slavic name with a Turkic lion inside it — the word arslan, which named the lion across the steppe from Anatolia to Central Asia. A poem of 1820 made it Russian.
How old is the name Ruslan?
Ruslan first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Ruslan is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Ruslan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ruslan most popular?
Ruslan peaked in 2000, reaching #3423 nationally. Today it ranks #3513, 90 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From arslan to Ruslan
The story of Ruslan
Arslan was a title as much as a name among the Turkic dynasties — Alp Arslan, the heroic lion, was an eleventh-century Seljuk sultan. The word traveled into Slavic and appears in medieval Russian tales as Yeruslan. Pushkin's long poem of 1820 gave the hero the shortened name Ruslan, and it entered ordinary Russian use from there. It is now used across Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Meaning
lion
From Turkic arslan, a lion, which passed into Persian and then into Slavic through the Turkic peoples of the steppe; Russian reshaped it as Ruslan, and the Turkish Aslan is the same word.
How the name formed
- arslan
- Yeruslan
- Ruslan
Related forms: Aslan · Руслан · Arslan
Pronouncing Ruslan
roos-LAN
Two syllables with the stress on the second. English speakers often say ROOS-lan.
Nicknames for Ruslan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1992
- Most boys named
- 202532 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3423reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- +23.1%32 in 2025, from 26
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ruslan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aslan in Turkish — related form
- Руслан in Russian — transliteration
- Arslan in Kazakh — related form
Ruslans among us
people named Ruslan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 53,377 born in 2025 was named Ruslan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rein test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ruslan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rein climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rein's path sketches the road Ruslan is walking now.
Ruslan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ruslan is headed
Ruslan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ruslan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ruslan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a documented journey across three language families.
- Six letters and two syllables, easy to write and to say.
- Recognized across Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Turkey.
- The stress moves to the front in English mouths.
- The name is strongly associated with the Caucasus and Central Asia, which is a fact rather than a problem.
- Ruslan and Rustam are close and are often confused, though they are different names.
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What they receive
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Ruslan
Masculine · #3513 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ruslans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ruslan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ruslan in 2025?
- Ruslan ranks #3513 among US boy names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ruslan?
- About 1 in every 53,377 US boys born in 2025 was named Ruslan — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ruslan with classmates?
- Ruslan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ruslan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bradford#3513 · Denton#3513 · Harden#3513 · Geronimo#3513 · Breon#3513 · Hashem#3513 · Jamere#3513 · Leslie#3513
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ruslan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ruslan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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