Ruthe
Ruthe was last recorded in 1973, when 5 babies were given it; 1,949 Americans have been recorded with it between 1898 and 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ruthe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ruthe?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #9,453, in 1973; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
122 babies in 1924, the peak
Ruthe peaked in 1924, when 122 girls were given it, #674 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 5 | #9,453 | 3.4 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,897 | 4.0 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,632 | 3.2 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,459 | 3.1 |
| 1961 | 9 | #4,823 | 4.5 |
| 1960 | 11 | #4,121 | 5.4 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,840 | 3.9 |
| 1956 | 9 | #4,405 | 4.5 |
| 1955 | 16 | #2,944 | 8.2 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,582 | 4.1 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 12 | #3,440 | 6.4 |
| 1952 | 10 | #3,745 | 5.4 |
| 1951 | 14 | #2,908 | 7.8 |
| 1950 | 15 | #2,758 | 8.8 |
| 1949 | 21 | #2,201 | 12.3 |
| 1948 | 15 | #2,681 | 8.8 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,751 | 8.5 |
| 1946 | 11 | #3,185 | 7.0 |
| 1945 | 14 | #2,431 | 10.7 |
| 1944 | 22 | #1,859 | 16.6 |
| 1943 | 21 | #1,939 | 15.1 |
| 1942 | 15 | #2,404 | 11.1 |
| 1941 | 13 | #2,514 | 10.8 |
| 1940 | 16 | #2,088 | 14.0 |
| 1939 | 17 | #2,029 | 15.5 |
| 1938 | 23 | #1,639 | 20.8 |
| 1937 | 21 | #1,727 | 19.7 |
| 1936 | 29 | #1,372 | 27.9 |
| 1935 | 22 | #1,653 | 21.0 |
| 1934 | 32 | #1,287 | 30.6 |
| 1933 | 23 | #1,594 | 22.8 |
| 1932 | 42 | #1,111 | 39.4 |
| 1931 | 35 | #1,239 | 32.9 |
| 1930 | 40 | #1,194 | 35.5 |
| 1929 | 42 | #1,154 | 37.6 |
| 1928 | 58 | #981 | 50.3 |
| 1927 | 77 | #847 | 64.6 |
| 1926 | 66 | #924 | 55.7 |
| 1925 | 111 | #703 | 91.2 |
| 1924 | 122 | #674 | 97.7 |
| 1923 | 112 | #695 | 92.8 |
| 1922 | 100 | #729 | 83.3 |
| 1921 | 92 | #764 | 74.6 |
| 1920 | 97 | #736 | 80.9 |
| 1919 | 74 | #819 | 65.5 |
| 1918 | 79 | #807 | 68.2 |
| 1917 | 61 | #894 | 56.4 |
| 1916 | 53 | #947 | 50.8 |
| 1915 | 48 | #966 | 48.8 |
| 1914 | 32 | #1,077 | 42.0 |
| 1913 | 26 | #1,086 | 41.6 |
| 1912 | 18 | #1,290 | 32.3 |
| 1911 | 12 | #1,431 | 28.7 |
| 1910 | 9 | #1,750 | 22.7 |
| 1909 | 11 | #1,356 | 31.7 |
| 1908 | 11 | #1,338 | 32.9 |
| 1907 | 8 | #1,621 | 25.1 |
| 1906 | 10 | #1,305 | 33.9 |
| 1904 | 5 | #2,129 | 18.2 |
| 1903 | 5 | #2,039 | 19.1 |
| 1902 | 5 | #2,002 | 18.9 |
| 1900 | 10 | #1,301 | 33.4 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,801 | 21.5 |
| 1898 | 7 | #1,484 | 27.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ruthe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ruthe has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 64 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ruthe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ruthe, and how old are they?
An estimated 271 Americans named Ruthe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (14% of everyone recorded); the median is 79 years old and half are between 72 and 87. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 558 people named Ruthe (558 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 427 born in the U.S. The Census count is 31% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ruthe born?
The states with the most babies named Ruthe are New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, with 62% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 127 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 127 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 89 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 44 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 39 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| California | 32 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Massachusetts | 26 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Iowa | 16 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Wisconsin | 14 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Minnesota | 9 | not ranked | 0.2× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ruthe with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 28,450 babies since 1880, Ruthe is the third most given (6.9% of them). In 2025 none of their 357 babies recorded by SSA was a Ruthe (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ruthe
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ruthe and names like it
- Compare Ruthe and RuthieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sRuthe peaked in 1924.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ruthe since 1910.
- The top names of 1924The year the most babies were named Ruthe.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Ruthe alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with RMost given first.