Reuben
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From Hebrew male personal name Reuven, traditionally interpreted as ‘behold the son’; Ruben and Rubin were influenced by the word for ‘ruby’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈɹubən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Reuben is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 3.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 3.9K
- USUnited States1 in 19K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 455 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
≈68,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Kenya, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Hebrew male personal name Reuven, traditionally interpreted as ‘behold the son’; Ruben and Rubin were influenced by the word for ‘ruby’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Reuben counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈68,000 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | Reuben | 16 |
| NG Nigeria | #831 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.6K | — | Reuben | 73 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Reuben | 33 |
| TZ Tanzania | — | ≈21,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.8K | — | Reuben | 26 |
| US United States | — | 17,061 | 1 in 19K | 17K | Reuben | 455 |
| ZA South Africa | #713 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.9K | — | Reuben | 69 |
| MW Malawi | #342 | ≈6,300 est. | ≈1 in 3.4K | — | Reuben | 9 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Reuben is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name is derived from Hebrew, traditionally interpreted as 'Behold, a son!' (ra'ah ben) or linked to Leah's statement 'The Lord has seen my affliction' (ra'ah be'onyi).
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A classic biblical name meaning 'behold, a son', symbolizing joy at a new birth.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Reuben represents the loss of preeminence due to sin, but also demonstrates themes of repentance and brotherly responsibility in Rabbinic and biblical tradition.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Hebrew; son, behold, a son; biblical name.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In English, First son of Jacob, by his wife Leah.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Rube Goldbergb. 1883USnot in their usual nameAmerican cartoonist (1883–1970)
- Reuben Goodsteinb. 1912GBBritish mathematician (1912-1985)
- Ruben Santiago-Hudsonb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor and screenwriter
- Ruben Östlundb. 1974SEnot in their usual nameSwedish film director and screenwriter (born 1974)
- Ruben Fleischerb. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican film director
- Ruben Studdardb. 1978USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer
- Ruben Gallegob. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician (born 1979)
- Rúben Amorimb. 1985PTnot in their usual namePortuguese professional football manager and former player
- Ruben Loftus-Cheekb. 1996GBnot in their usual nameEnglish association football player (born 1996)
- Ruben Vargasb. 1998CHnot in their usual nameSwiss association football player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 89 sources across 48 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 17K | #1,766 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 269 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 38 | #1,766 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1988 | 5 | — |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Reuben mean, and where does it come from?
- From Hebrew male personal name Reuven, traditionally interpreted as ‘behold the son’; Ruben and Rubin were influenced by the word for ‘ruby’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Reuben?
- In the etymology graph, Ruben, Rubens and Rubén are forms of the same name in other languages; Rube is a recorded short or pet form.
- In which country does Reuben have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 68 thousand people named Reuben in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled reuben.
- Is Reuben a male or female name?
- Reuben is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How do you pronounce Reuben?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɹubən/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Reuben?
- In the United States, the national register counted 17,061 people named Reuben in 2020, about 1 in 19 thousand residents.
- How common is Reuben compared with other names?
- In Malawi, Reuben is the 342nd most common given name of 3,102 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Reuben?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/reubenThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Reuben” — the 342nd most common given name in Malawi. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.