Hebrew re'ut, "friendship" — companion; friend. The Moabite who told Naomi "whither thou goest, I will go".
Ruth ranks 173rd among American girls in 2025, with 1,781 born that year. Its best year was 1920, when 26,156 babies were given the name, ranking 5th. The typical living American called Ruth is about 76 years old today. It is relatively most common in North Dakota, where it accounts for 0.30% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.