Reuben

About Reuben

Reuben is a Hebrew name meaning “behold, a son.” It belongs to one of the oldest familiar groups of biblical names and has remained recognizable through religious tradition, art, and business. Its unusual eu spelling gives a distinctive appearance to the straightforward English pronunciation ROO-bun.

Meaning and biblical history

The Hebrew name combines elements associated with seeing and with a son. In Genesis, Reuben is the eldest son of Jacob and Leah, and his descendants are identified with one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

He also appears in the story of Joseph and his brothers. When the brothers plan to kill Joseph, Reuben argues against bloodshed and suggests putting him in a pit instead.

The narrative explains that Reuben intends to return and rescue Joseph, restoring him to their father. This episode makes him more than a name in a family list: he has an active, complicated part in one of Genesis's best-known stories.

Reuben has been used as a Christian given name in Britain since the Protestant Reformation. Its biblical history therefore intersects with later English naming traditions.

Related forms and pronunciation

Reuven is a Hebrew form, while Ruben is used in several European languages. Spanish Rubén and Portuguese Rúben belong to the same family.

English Reuben has two syllables, ROO-bun, with emphasis on the first. Rube is an established shortening. The internal eu is distinctive on the page but does not add an extra syllable.

Reuben “Rube” Goldberg

Cartoonist Reuben Lucius Goldberg became known professionally as Rube Goldberg. He is remembered for drawings of complicated, oddly connected machines that perform ordinary tasks.

That visual joke made his name a lasting reference for elaborate solutions to simple problems. His full given name and familiar shortening therefore appear in two different forms of the same public identity.

Goldberg also worked as an editorial cartoonist. In 1948, he won the Pulitzer Prize in that category for “Peace Today.” The award recognized political cartooning, a different part of his output from the ingenious machines for which he is especially remembered.

Reuben Mattus and ice cream

Reuben Mattus and his wife, Rose, founded Häagen-Dazs in the Bronx in 1960. Their original range offered three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee.

The company paired those simple choices with a deliberately invented brand name. Mattus later added strawberry in 1966, after years of work on the flavor.

His business gives Reuben a connection with an everyday product whose brand became internationally familiar. Here the older biblical given name belongs to one of the people behind a much newer commercial name.

American popularity

Reuben's strongest United States ranking for boys was #149 in 1880, with 92 births. Its largest published annual count came in 1920, with 465.

The name appeared for 215 boys in 2000 and 202 in 2010. In 2025, 269 boys received it, ranking #889. These records count Reuben separately from Ruben and the other spellings in its international family.

How popular is Reuben?

In 2025, Reuben ranked #889 among boys in the United States, with 269 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 465 in 1920. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.