Rudie
A diminutive form of the German name Rudolph, derived from elements meaning "famous" and "wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 126 living Americans carry the first name Rudie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Rudie today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rudie births was 1986 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rudie. 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 Rudie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
126
~ 1 in 2,720,273 Americans
Peak year
1986
10 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
1992 SSA rank
#9,548
Tracked since 1913
Census
Rudie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 281 people with the first name Rudie, which placed it at #30,797 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
#30,797
National first-name rank
People counted
281
281 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rudie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rudie is White at 41.6%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Rudie 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 Rudie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.6% · 117
- Black or African American23.8% · 67
- Hispanic or Latino22.1% · 62
- Two or more races7.5% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Rudie
Rudie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 214 total registrations, 143 (66.8%) were male and 71 (33.2%) were female.
Rudie as a male name
- Ranked #9,548 in 1992
- 5 male births in 1992
- Peak: 1947 (9 births)
Rudie as a female name
- Ranked #14,892 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rudie on both sides of the split. Of the 277 people counted with this name, 186 were male (67.1%) and 91 were female (32.9%).
Popularity
Rudie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rudie from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 43 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Rudie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rudie 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 Rudie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rudie
The given name Rudie has its origins in Dutch and Low German, where it is a diminutive or nickname form of the name Rudolf. Rudolf itself is derived from the Germanic elements "hruod" meaning "fame" and "wulf" meaning "wolf." The name can be traced back to the Middle Ages, particularly in areas of present-day Netherlands, Germany, and neighboring regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rudie can be found in Dutch historical records from the 15th century. However, its use likely predates these written accounts, as nicknames and diminutives were commonly used in Germanic cultures during the medieval period.
While the name Rudie does not appear prominently in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it shares its roots with the more widely known name Rudolf, which has been documented in various historical sources throughout Europe.
Among notable individuals who bore the name Rudie, one can mention Rudie Burrell, a Jamaican singer and musician born in 1923, who was a member of the popular ska and reggae group The Skatalites. Another example is Rudie Watts, a British actor born in 1938, known for his roles in films like "Scum" and "Alan Clarke's Elephant."
In the world of sports, Rudie Liebst (1926-2022) was a German footballer who played as a striker for clubs like FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund in the 1940s and 1950s. Rudie Hinrichs (1918-1965) was a German boxer who competed in the lightweight division, winning the European championship in 1946.
Another notable figure was Rudie van Lier (1901-1995), a Dutch journalist and resistance fighter during World War II, who was awarded the prestigious Resistance Memorial Cross for his efforts against the Nazi occupation.
While these examples highlight the historical use of the name Rudie, it is important to note that the popularity and cultural significance of names can vary across different regions and time periods. The name Rudie, with its Dutch and Low German roots, may hold particular significance in certain areas and communities, while being less common in others.
People
Rudie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rudie 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
Rudie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rudie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 126 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rudie 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 2,720,273 US residents.
Is Rudie a common name?
We classify Rudie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 214 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rudie most popular?
The single biggest year for Rudie was 1986, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rudie is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rudie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 281 people with the name Rudie, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,797 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 Rudie 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 Rudie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rudie on both sides of the split. Of the 277 people counted with this name, 186 were male (67.1%) and 91 were female (32.9%). 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 Rudie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rudie is White at 41.6%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Rudie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rudie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.6% (117 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 Rudie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rudie a male name?
Yes, 66.8% of people registered as Rudie 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 Rudie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rudie 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 Rudie 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 share the name Rudie?
Want to know how many people share the name Rudie? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.