Ruben
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Behold A Son
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Ruben
Ruben is the Spanish, Dutch, and German form of Reuben, descending from the Hebrew Re'uven meaning "behold, a son" — the words spoken by Leah at the birth of her firstborn son (Genesis 29:32). Reuben/Ruben is the eldest of the twelve sons of Jacob and the patriarch of the Tribe of Reuben, one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Notable bearers include the iconic Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (using Rubens as a surname, 1577–1640, the iconic Flemish Baroque painter widely considered one of the greatest figures of 17th-century European art); American politician Ruben Diaz (born 1943, the American politician); American actor Ruben Studdard (born 1978, the American singer who won the 2nd season of American Idol 2003); and the iconic Cuban-American singer Rubén Blades (using the original Spanish accent, born 1948, the Panamanian-American singer-songwriter).
The two spellings (Ruben and Reuben) are tracked separately by SSA. Ruben has been continuously used in Spanish-speaking American communities for over a century. The name climbed into the US top 200 boys' rank by 1985 and held a top-300 range since. The name's appeal is its layered Hebrew-Catholic-Latinate pedigree combined with two firm syllables — the in-built Old Testament patriarchal religious anchor, the strong Peter Paul Rubens artistic cultural anchor, and tonal warmth distinctive to Spanish-language naming. The name reads as both classical-religious and contemporary American. Common nicknames Ruby (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name on its own), Ben (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name), Roo, and the rare Rubi each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Reuben (the historical English spelling), Ruben (Spanish/Dutch/German), and Rubén (Spanish original, with accent) have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Reuben (English original), Rubén (Spanish original, with accent), Ruben (Dutch/German), and the original Hebrew Re'uven.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Ruben
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Ruben by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2001 with 1,736 boys named Ruben (boy rank #207 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #480 for boys (632 US births). That's 273 places below its 2001 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Ruben Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Ruben the strongest states are California, Texas, New Mexico.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #230 | 1,709 |
| 2 | Texas | #238 | 1,543 |
| 3 | New Mexico | #265 | 74 |
| 4 | Arizona | #266 | 297 |
| 5 | Nevada | #372 | 86 |
| 6 | Oregon | #417 | 89 |
| 7 | Colorado | #431 | 130 |
| 8 | Nebraska | #451 | 17 |
| 9 | Washington | #457 | 152 |
| 10 | Kansas | #470 | 51 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Ruben in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Ruben
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Ruben.
- Rubén Darío is a famous poet who pioneered a literary movement titled ‘Modernismo’ and changed the face of Spanish literature.
- Ruben Rada is a famous Uruguayan composer and singer.
Looking for names like Ruben?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Ruben to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Ruben against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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