Rutha
Feminine · “companion”
Rutha adds a vowel to a name that was already a woman's. The final a is the ordinary American device for turning a man's name into a woman's — it made Willia out of William and Roberta out of Robert — and here it is doing nothing at all except adding a syllable.
How old is the name Rutha?
Rutha first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Rutha alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 1,000 people named Rutha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rutha most popular?
Rutha peaked in 1932, reaching #748 nationally. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rut to Rutha
The story of Rutha
The book she is named in is the only one in the Hebrew Bible named for a foreigner, and it does not soften the point: she is a Moabite, from a people the law treats as excluded, and the story turns on her choosing to stay with her mother-in-law's people when she has every reason to go home. The line about going where you go is a formal declaration, made by a woman with no legal standing, and the book ends by making her the great-grandmother of King David. Puritan families took the name in the seventeenth century, and the added a is an American nineteenth-century addition on top.
Meaningscholars disagree
companion, friend
The Hebrew is generally read as a word about companionship or friendship, though the derivation is not secure. The added vowel changes nothing.
How the name formed
- Rut
- Ruth
- Rutha
Related forms: Rut · Rut
Pronouncing Rutha
ROO-thuh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Ruth has one; the added vowel is the whole difference.
Nicknames for Rutha
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 192587 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #748reached in 1932
- Change vs 1969
- −14.3%6 in 1975, from 7
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.
Rutha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rut in Hebrew — transliteration
- Rut in Spanish — related form
Ruthas among us
people named Rutha are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Rutha sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both parts are readable, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- It sits behind a name recognized across Jewish and Christian tradition alike.
- Ruthie works as a short form for the whole family.
- Ruth is far commoner and will be written instead.
- The added vowel does the job of feminising a name that did not need it.
- It reads clearly as a name of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Rutha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ruthas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Rutha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rutha in 2025?
- Rutha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Rutha with classmates?
- Rutha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rutha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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