Ruth

Where Ruth comes from

From Ruth the Moabite, Hebrew רות, of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "companion". Also associated with the English noun ruth (“compassion”) by Puritans.
— Wiktionary's entry for Ruth
  • Hebrew
  • 1 syllable
Ruth through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #93 among girls, with 234 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1887
    Ruth Benedict born
    American anthropologist and folklorologist
  3. 1893
    Peak, #3
    3,658 babies named Ruth, its best rank.
  4. 1933
    Ruth Bader Ginsburg born
    American lawyer and jurist
  5. 1970
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #178.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Hebrew.
Namesakes
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg · American lawyer and jurist, 1933–2020
  • Ruth Benedict · American anthropologist and folklorologist, 1887–1948
  • Ruth Gordon · American actress and writer, 1896–1985
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala · German-born British-American author, 1927–2013
  • Ruth Rendell · British writer, 1930–2015

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.