Find out how popular the last name Ruffing is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Ruffing.

Ruffing, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Ruffing surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Ruffing in America

Ruffing is the 12649th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Ruffing surname appeared 2,446 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Ruffing.

We can also compare 2010 data for Ruffing to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Ruffing

The surname Ruffing has its origins in Germany, dating back to the 14th century. It is believed to have derived from the Low German word "rüffen," which means "to pluck" or "to pull." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to an occupation or trade, such as a weaver or a wool-puller.

Ruffing is a variant spelling of the German surname "Rüffing" or "Rüffinger." These names were commonly found in the regions of Bavaria and Saxony, particularly in the areas around the cities of Nuremberg and Dresden.

One of the earliest documented references to the name Ruffing can be found in the Nuremberg city records from the year 1389, where a person named "Hanns Ruffinger" is mentioned. This provides evidence of the name's existence in the late medieval period.

In the 16th century, the name Ruffing appears in several historical documents, such as the parish records of St. Sebald's Church in Nuremberg, where a "Hans Ruffing" is recorded as a resident in 1523.

The earliest known bearer of the Ruffing name was Johannes Ruffing, a German clergyman born in Nuremberg in 1455. He served as a priest in the nearby town of Fürth and is notable for his writings on religious matters.

Another prominent figure with the surname Ruffing was Bernhard Ruffing, a German artist and engraver who lived from 1673 to 1738. He was renowned for his intricate copper engravings, which depicted scenes from classical mythology and biblical stories.

In the 19th century, Friedrich Ruffing (1806-1879) was a notable German architect who designed several churches and public buildings in the Bavarian cities of Munich and Augsburg.

The name Ruffing has also been associated with various place names in Germany, such as Ruffingen (a town in Baden-Württemberg) and Rüfingen (a village in Bavaria). These place names likely share a common etymological root with the surname.

Finally, a notable bearer of the Ruffing name in more recent times was Charles Ruffing (1905-1986), an American professional baseball player who pitched for the New York Yankees and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Ruffing

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Ruffing.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Ruffing was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Ruffing has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Ruffing was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Ruffing, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!