Rut
Feminine · “Hebrew Rut”
The book of Ruth exists to say that David's great-grandmother was a foreigner. Ruth is a Moabite, from a people the law treats with hostility, and the short book that carries her name ends with a genealogy putting her four generations above the king. It is one of the more pointed arguments in the Hebrew Bible.
How old is the name Rut?
Rut first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Rut alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Rut are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rut most popular?
Rut peaked in 2009, reaching #4013 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,349 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rut to Rut
The story of Rut
The argument runs underneath the story. Deuteronomy excludes Moabites from the assembly of the Lord to the tenth generation; Ruth is a Moabite who says where you go I will go, and your people shall be my people. She gleans, she is protected, she marries Boaz, and the book closes with a list: Boaz begat Obed, Obed begat Jesse, Jesse begat David. Many readers have taken the book as a deliberate counter to the policies of Ezra and Nehemiah, who required Judean men to dismiss foreign wives after the return from exile, and the dating is disputed on exactly that question. Whether or not it was written as a rebuttal, the text places a foreign woman in the royal line and makes her the most admirable person in it, and it does so in four short chapters with no miracles and almost no divine intervention.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Rut, meaning unresolved
The name is usually connected to a Hebrew root about companionship or friendship, giving something like friend, but the derivation is not secure and the name may be Moabite rather than Hebrew. Rut is the Spanish, Scandinavian and Hebrew spelling, since the final letter is a plain t with no h in the original. It peaks in the American data in 2009 as the Spanish form.
How the name formed
- Rut
- Ruth
Related forms: Rut · Rut · Ruth
Pronouncing Rut
root
One syllable, with a clean final t. The English Ruth ends in the th of thin, which Hebrew does not have here: the original letter is a plain t, and the English th comes from the Greek transliteration. Spanish and Hebrew both say root.
Nicknames for Rut
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 200938 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4013reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%12 in 2025, from 20
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.
Rut in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rut in Spanish — same name
- Rut in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ruth in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Ruts among us
people named Rut are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Rut
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 Lisett test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rut's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lisett climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lisett's path sketches the road Rut is walking now.
Rut 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
Rut beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rut in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The biblical figure is universally admired and the book is short and readable.
- One syllable, three letters, easy to write.
- It is the correct form in Spanish, Hebrew and Scandinavian.
- English speakers will add the h and the th sound.
- It is a homophone of the English word root.
- The meaning of the name is not established.
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What they receive
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Rut
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ruts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Rut are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rut in 2025?
- Rut ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rut?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Rut — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rut with classmates?
- Rut will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rut
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rut? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rut 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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