Ruel
#6,373 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Ruel has been given to 1,926 babies in the U.S. since 1882. In 2025 it ranked #6,373 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1915, with 49 recorded.
Babies named Ruel, 2025
1 in 237,000
Ruel over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Ruel?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 237,000
- 14 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 122,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #6,373
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 164,137 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Ruel sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 164,137 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ruel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Ruels were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Ruel was born before 1938 — so the typical Ruel is around 87 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1920s
- 19.4% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 9.9%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 730
- People you could plausibly meet
1920s — 19.4% of all recorded uses (372).
Is Ruel rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +1,280
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +7,288
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 28.6%
- Peak was 1915 (49)
- Years since peak
- 110
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 33.1% average annual change
Spellings of Ruel
Ruel is not the most common spelling — Joel is, with 26.1% against Ruel's 0.18%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Ruel is used
Across 1910–2025, Ruel was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 232,955 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Ruel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Ruel around the world
Where Ruel ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- England & Wales2000–2025#3,256in 2025
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.
Ruel by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Ruel
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Ruel
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.