Reuben
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son".
Name Census estimates that about 18,484 living Americans carry the first name Reuben. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Reuben today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reuben births was 1920 (465 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reuben. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Reuben with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 18,543 Americans
Peak year
1920
465 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#874
Tracked since 1880
Census
Reuben in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,064 people with the first name Reuben, which placed it at #1,766 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,766
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,064 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reuben
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reuben is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.3%) and Black (18.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Reuben described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Reuben at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.9% · 8,680
- Hispanic or Latino19.3% · 3,292
- Black or African American18.8% · 3,206
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 999
- Two or more races3.4% · 588
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 299
Gender
Gender distribution for Reuben
Out of the 31,896 babies given the name Reuben since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Reuben as a male name
- Ranked #874 in 2024
- 275 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (465 births)
Reuben as a female name
- Ranked #13,368 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1981 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reuben appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,061 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Reuben: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reuben from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 3,882 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Reuben remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reuben by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Reuben during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reubens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Reuben, while Maine, Connecticut, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 511 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reuben
The name Reuben has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, tracing back to ancient biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew term "re'uven," meaning "behold, a son" or "he has seen my misery." The name is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis as one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the biblical patriarch.
In the biblical narrative, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah. He played a significant role in the story of Joseph, attempting to save his younger brother from being harmed by the other sons. Reuben's name carries this symbolic meaning of seeing and acknowledging the difficulties and hardships faced by his mother, Leah.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Reuben appears in the Old Testament, where it is mentioned multiple times in reference to the tribe of Reuben, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This tribe was known for its bravery in battle and its territorial holdings on the eastern side of the Jordan River.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Reuben. One of the earliest was Reuben the Galilean, a Jewish leader who lived during the first century AD and was mentioned in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. Another historical figure was Reuben Eldar (1912-1992), an Israeli politician and one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
In the realm of literature, Reuben is the name of a character in the classic novel "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819. The character, a Jewish moneylender, plays a significant role in the story and helps to illustrate the challenges faced by Jewish communities during the medieval period.
Other notable individuals named Reuben include Reuben Greenberg (1919-1983), an American police chief and law enforcement pioneer; Reuben Fine (1914-1993), a renowned American chess grandmaster and author; and Reuben Kadish (1913-1992), an American artist known for his abstract expressionist paintings.
While the name Reuben has its roots in Hebrew and biblical tradition, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and communities throughout history, often carrying symbolic meanings of strength, resilience, and perseverance.
People
Reuben + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reuben as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Reuben: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reuben?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18,484 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reuben going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 18,543 US residents.
Is Reuben a common name?
We classify Reuben as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31,896 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reuben most popular?
The single biggest year for Reuben was 1920, when 465 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reuben is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reuben in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,064 people with the name Reuben, or 5.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,766 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Reuben in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Reuben?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reuben appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,061 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Reuben?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reuben is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.3%) and Black (18.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Reuben most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reuben in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.9% (8,680 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Reuben in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reuben a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Reuben in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Reuben still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reuben in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Reuben can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Reuben as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Reuben on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.