Ruger
A masculine name derived from the German surname Ruger, potentially meaning "rest" or "repose".
Name Census estimates that about 2,237 living Americans carry the first name Ruger. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Ruger today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ruger births was 2016 (173 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ruger. 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.
Key insights
- • Ruger is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 153,221 Americans
Peak year
2016
173 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,034
Tracked since 1993
Census
Ruger in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,563 people with the first name Ruger, which placed it at #9,063 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
#9,063
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,563 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ruger
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruger is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Ruger 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 Ruger at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.1% · 1,361
- Two or more races5.3% · 83
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 66
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 6
- Black or African American0.3% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Ruger
Out of the 2,256 babies given the name Ruger since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Ruger as a male name
- Ranked #2,034 in 2024
- 75 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (167 births)
Ruger as a female name
- Ranked #14,790 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2016 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruger leans strongly male. 1,540 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 29 female bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Ruger: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ruger from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,309 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ruger remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ruger 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 Ruger during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rugers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Oklahoma, Texas, Utah recorded the most babies named Ruger, while Oregon, Minnesota, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ruger
The given name Ruger is a relatively modern invention, likely originating in the late 19th or early 20th century. It does not appear to have any direct linguistic roots in ancient languages or cultural traditions. The name is widely believed to be derived from the surname of the American firearms manufacturer, Sturm, Ruger & Co., founded in 1949 by William B. Ruger and Alexander McCormick Sturm.
While the origin of the name Ruger as a given name is relatively recent, there are several notable individuals who have borne this first name throughout history. One of the earliest recorded instances is Ruger Hauer, a Dutch actor born in 1944, best known for his roles in films such as Blade Runner and The Hitcher. Another notable Ruger is Ruger Bua, a Papua New Guinean politician and former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, serving from 1980 to 1982.
In the world of sports, Ruger Johnson was an American football player who played as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ruger Hinton was a professional baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies in the 1940s.
One of the more unique individuals with the first name Ruger is Ruger Hauer Booth, an American artist and sculptor born in 1984, known for his abstract and conceptual works exploring themes of identity and self-expression.
While the name Ruger may not have a rich historical lineage or cultural significance, its association with the iconic American firearms manufacturer has likely contributed to its adoption as a given name, particularly in the United States. Despite its relatively modern origins, the name has been borne by a diverse range of individuals across various fields, from entertainment and politics to sports and the arts.
People
Ruger + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ruger 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
Ruger: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ruger?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ruger 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 153,221 US residents.
Is Ruger a common name?
We classify Ruger as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,256 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ruger most popular?
The single biggest year for Ruger was 2016, when 173 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ruger is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ruger in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,563 people with the name Ruger, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,063 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 Ruger 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 Ruger?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruger leans strongly male. 1,540 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 29 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Ruger?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruger is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Ruger most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ruger in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.1% (1,361 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 Ruger in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ruger a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Ruger 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 Ruger still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ruger 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 Ruger 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 Americans are named Ruger?
See how many people have the name Ruger on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.