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
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #93 among girls — 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 — more than any year before or since.
  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.