Ruben
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "bright red, reddish" or "behold, a son".
Name Census estimates that about 95,482 living Americans carry the first name Ruben. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Ruben today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ruben births was 1992 (1,814 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ruben. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ruben with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ruben is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 655 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
95K
~ 1 in 3,590 Americans
Peak year
1992
1,814 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#501
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ruben in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 126,201 people with the first name Ruben, which placed it at #446 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#446
National first-name rank
People counted
126K
126,201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
41.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
89.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ruben
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruben is Hispanic at 89.3%. The next largest groups are White (5.3%) and Black (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ruben described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ruben at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino89.3% · 112,729
- White5.3% · 6,675
- Black or African American2.5% · 3,203
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 2,575
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 530
- Two or more races0.4% · 489
Gender
Gender distribution for Ruben
Out of the 116,573 babies given the name Ruben since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Ruben as a male name
- Ranked #501 in 2024
- 607 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (1,805 births)
Ruben as a female name
- Ranked #16,863 in 2009
- 6 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1980 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruben appears almost entirely male. Of the 126,201 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Ruben: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ruben from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 17,024 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ruben by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ruben during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rubens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Ruben, while District of Columbia, Montana, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,510 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ruben
The name Ruben has its origins in the Hebrew language. It derives from the Biblical name Reuben, which is rooted in the Hebrew phrase "ra'ah ben," meaning "he has seen a son." Reuben was one of the twelve sons of Jacob and a progenitor of one of the tribes of Israel.
In the Old Testament, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob and his wife Leah. The Book of Genesis recounts that Leah named him Reuben, saying "Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me." The name thus carries connotations of being seen, understood, and loved.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Reuben appear in the Hebrew Bible, dating back to around the 13th century BCE. Over time, the spelling evolved from the original Hebrew to the more modern Ruben, which is commonly used across various languages and cultures.
Notable historical figures named Ruben include Ruben Dario, a Nicaraguan poet and a prominent figure in the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo. He lived from 1867 to 1916 and is considered one of the greatest poets of the Spanish language.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Ruben Rausing, a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist who founded the packaging company Tetra Pak. He lived from 1895 to 1983 and made significant contributions to the development of modern food packaging.
In the realm of art, Ruben Kadmir was a Russian-American artist and sculptor known for his abstract expressionist works. He lived from 1914 to 1988 and his sculptures can be found in various museums and public spaces around the world.
Ruben Salazar was a Mexican-American journalist and activist who played a significant role in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He was tragically killed by a tear gas canister fired by a police officer during a protest in 1970.
Finally, Ruben Blades is a Panamanian salsa singer, actor, and activist who has had a successful career spanning several decades. Born in 1948, he is known for his socially conscious lyrics and has also appeared in various films and television shows.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ruben
People
Ruben + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ruben as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ruben: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ruben?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 95,482 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ruben going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,590 US residents.
Is Ruben a common name?
We classify Ruben as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 116,573 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ruben most popular?
The single biggest year for Ruben was 1992, when 1,814 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ruben is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ruben in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 126,201 people with the name Ruben, or 41.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #446 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ruben in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ruben?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruben appears almost entirely male. Of the 126,201 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ruben?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruben is Hispanic at 89.3%. The next largest groups are White (5.3%) and Black (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ruben most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ruben in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.3% (112,729 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ruben in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ruben a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Ruben in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ruben still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ruben in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ruben can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Ruben?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.