Ruthie
A feminine variant of Ruth, a Hebrew name meaning "friend" or "companion".
Name Census estimates that about 10,437 living Americans carry the first name Ruthie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ruthie today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ruthie births was 1927 (428 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ruthie. 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 Ruthie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 32,840 Americans
Peak year
1927
428 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1939 SSA rank
#885
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ruthie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,847 people with the first name Ruthie, which placed it at #2,492 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
#2,492
National first-name rank
People counted
9.8K
9,847 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ruthie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruthie is Black at 45.1%. The next largest groups are White (44.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Ruthie 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 Ruthie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.1% · 4,440
- White44.1% · 4,347
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 487
- Two or more races3.1% · 303
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 159
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 111
Gender
Gender distribution for Ruthie
Out of the 22,303 babies given the name Ruthie since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Ruthie as a male name
- Ranked #3,894 in 1939
- 5 male births in 1939
- Peak: 1929 (7 births)
Ruthie as a female name
- Ranked #885 in 2024
- 305 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (428 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruthie appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,841 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Ruthie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ruthie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 3,945 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Ruthie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ruthie 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 Ruthie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ruthies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Ruthie, while Massachusetts, Washington, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 504 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ruthie
The name Ruthie is a diminutive form of the feminine given name Ruth, which has its origins in the Hebrew language. Ruth is derived from the Hebrew word "re'ut," meaning friend or companion. The name is believed to have first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible, where it refers to the Moabite woman who became the ancestor of King David.
The Book of Ruth, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who remained loyal to her mother-in-law Naomi after the death of her husband. Ruth's unwavering faithfulness and devotion to Naomi became a symbol of filial piety and loyalty. The name Ruth has since been associated with these virtues.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ruth can be found in the ancient Hebrew text of the Book of Ruth, which is believed to have been written around the 6th century BCE. However, the name may have been in use even earlier, as the events described in the book are set during the period of the Judges, which predates the rise of the monarchy in ancient Israel.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ruth or Ruthie. One of the most famous is Ruth the Moabite, the central figure in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible. Another notable Ruth is Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020), the renowned American jurist and Supreme Court Justice, who was a pioneer in advancing gender equality and women's rights.
Other notable figures with the name include Ruth Bell Graham (1920-2007), the wife of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, and Ruth Westheimer (1928-), better known as Dr. Ruth, a renowned sex therapist and media personality. Additionally, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927-2013) was an acclaimed British novelist and screenwriter who won two Academy Awards for her adaptations of novels into screenplays.
The name Ruthie has been used as a diminutive form of Ruth throughout various cultures and time periods. It has been popular in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, but has also been used in other parts of the world where the name Ruth has been adopted.
People
Ruthie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ruthie 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
Ruthie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ruthie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,437 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ruthie 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 32,840 US residents.
Is Ruthie a common name?
We classify Ruthie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,303 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ruthie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ruthie was 1927, when 428 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ruthie is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ruthie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,847 people with the name Ruthie, or 3.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,492 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 Ruthie 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 Ruthie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruthie appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,841 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Ruthie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruthie is Black at 45.1%. The next largest groups are White (44.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Ruthie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ruthie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.1% (4,440 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 Ruthie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ruthie a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Ruthie in the SSA data are female. 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 Ruthie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ruthie 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 Ruthie 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 common is the name Ruthie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Ruthie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.