Entry № 8958 · Hebrew origin

Ruth Ruth — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ ROOTH /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"Friend, compassion"
Syllables
1
First recorded
Ancient (Hebrew Bible)

A name that means "friend, compassion".

Ruth (רוּת) is the Hebrew name from the Book of Ruth — the Moabite woman who, after her husband's death, refused to leave her mother-in-law Naomi, and made the famous declaration "Whither thou goest, I will go." She became the ancestor of King David.

The Hebrew root means "friend" or "compassion." Ruth has been continuously in the U.S. top 200 since records began. The late U.S.

Friend, compassion — a Hebrew name.

The name in its native script.

רוּת
Transliteration
Rūt
Pronunciation
/ ruːθ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Ruth stands.

Ruth does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Ruths before her.

Real people
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
1933 – 2020
Babe Ruth
American baseball player (the surname).
1895 – 1948
In fiction
Ruth
Heroine of the Book of Ruth.
Hebrew Bible, c. 6th c. BCE

Names connected to Ruth.

The number behind Ruth.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ruth reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.