Ruddy
Having a reddish complexion or color, glowing.
Name Census estimates that about 464 living Americans carry the first name Ruddy. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Ruddy today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ruddy births was 1992 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ruddy. 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.
People living today
464
~ 1 in 738,695 Americans
Peak year
1992
27 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,036
Tracked since 1927
Census
Ruddy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,176 people with the first name Ruddy, which placed it at #11,058 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
#11,058
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,176 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ruddy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruddy is Hispanic at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (9.7%) and White (6.3%). 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 Ruddy 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 Ruddy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino80.6% · 948
- Black or African American9.7% · 114
- White6.3% · 74
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 31
- Two or more races0.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Ruddy
Out of the 532 babies given the name Ruddy since 1880, 99.1% 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.
Ruddy as a male name
- Ranked #12,036 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1992 (22 births)
Ruddy as a female name
- Ranked #15,030 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1992 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruddy leans strongly male. 1,090 people counted with this name were male (92.7%), compared with 86 female bearers (7.3%).
Popularity
Ruddy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ruddy from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 143 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
Ruddy 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 Ruddy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ruddys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ruddy
The name Ruddy has its roots in the Old English language and dates back to the Middle Ages. Derived from the Old English word "rudu," meaning "redness" or "ruddy complexion," the name was initially used to describe someone with a reddish or flushed appearance.
In the early medieval period, Ruddy was a common nickname or descriptive name given to individuals with a ruddy or reddish complexion, particularly those who worked outdoors or had a fair complexion prone to reddening. The name gained popularity and eventually became a given name in its own right.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ruddy can be found in the Domesday Book, a highly influential survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book lists several individuals bearing the name Ruddy, indicating its usage during the Norman period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ruddy. One of the most famous was Ruddy Yates (1582-1655), an English Puritan minister and member of the Westminster Assembly, a pivotal gathering that shaped the doctrines and practices of the Church of England.
Another prominent figure was Ruddy Kipling (1865-1936), the renowned English writer and poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. His works, including "The Jungle Book" and "Gunga Din," have become literary classics and have been adapted into numerous films and stage productions.
In the realm of sports, Ruddy Galindo (born 1969) is a notable American figure skater who won the 1996 U.S. National Championships and the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships. He was also the first openly gay male to win a major singles title in figure skating.
Ruddy Huxtable (born 1959), an American actress and singer, is best known for her role as Denise Huxtable on the popular television sitcom "The Cosby Show" from 1984 to 1992. She has also appeared in several films and television shows throughout her career.
Lastly, Ruddy Valentino (1895-1926), an Italian-American actor, was one of the most famous leading men of the silent film era. His good looks and on-screen persona earned him the moniker "The Latin Lover," and his untimely death at the age of 31 caused a mass hysteria among his fans, cementing his status as a cultural icon.
People
Ruddy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ruddy 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
Ruddy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ruddy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 464 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ruddy 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 738,695 US residents.
Is Ruddy a common name?
We classify Ruddy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 532 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ruddy most popular?
The single biggest year for Ruddy was 1992, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ruddy is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ruddy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,176 people with the name Ruddy, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,058 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 Ruddy 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 Ruddy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ruddy leans strongly male. 1,090 people counted with this name were male (92.7%), compared with 86 female bearers (7.3%). 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 Ruddy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ruddy is Hispanic at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (9.7%) and White (6.3%). 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 Ruddy most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ruddy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (948 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 Ruddy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ruddy a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Ruddy 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 Ruddy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ruddy 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 Ruddy 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 Ruddy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.