Rutger

#13,509 in 2025Boys' name

Fame, renown + spear, through Ruodgēr

Rutger has been given to 274 babies in the U.S. since 1987. In 2025 it ranked #13,509 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1993, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Rutger, 2025

1 in 663,000

Rutger over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rutger: meaning, origin, and history

Fame, renown + spear, through Ruodgēr

German

What Rutger means

Rutger belongs to the name family reached through Rutger → Ruodgēr. Its meaning is “fame, renown + spear”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rutger is used in Dutch. Its origins include German.

Rutger comes through German Rütger, Middle High German Rüedger, Old High German Ruodgēr, Proto-West Germanic *Hrōþigaiʀ and Proto-Germanic *Hrōþigaizaz.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rogier and Ruodgēr.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 274 boys were recorded with the name Rutger between 1987 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1993; its best national rank was #3,012 in 1993.

Over 10 years its rank rose, from #13,654 in 2015 to #13,509 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Rutger?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025: 1 in 663,000; 5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only: 1 in 342,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025: #13,509; of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size: 459,581 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Rutger sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rutger. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rutgers were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rutger was born before 1997 — so the typical Rutger is around 28 today.

Median birth year: 1997; About 28 years old
Biggest decade: 1990s; 55.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 34.3%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 274; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1990s — 55.1% of all recorded uses (151).

Is Rutger 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: +145; Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago: 1.00×; More babies than then
Share of its own peak: 21.7%; Peak was 1993 (23)
Years since peak: 32; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 27.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #3,012; 1993

Spellings of Rutger

Rutger is not the most common spelling — Roger is, with 81.6% against Rutger's 0.05%.

Roger81.6%442,142
Luther12.4%66,986
Rodger4.0%21,556
Ruger0.43%2,356
Auther0.43%2,349
Cutter0.31%1,682
Ranger0.28%1,518
Cutler0.19%1,042

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 Rutger is used

Across 1910–2025, Rutger was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1California1 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. Rutger has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rutger by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: #13,509
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: New entry
Best rank ever: #3,012; 1993
Peak year: 1993; 23 that year
First recorded: 1987
Last recorded: 2025
All-time count: 274
Count in 2025: 5

Names similar to Rutger

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Ruthvik Rutledge Dodger Seager Trigger Danger Seger Jaeger Tyger Ridger Holger Jager Ludger Ranger Rutvik Dagger Rutilio Grainger Ruthie Tiger Edger Trager Traeger Dillinger

Sibling names for Rutger

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Danyelle Shanice Breonna Jessika Salena Ciera Breanne Breann

For a brother

Elizabeth Coty Brandan Trever Mitchel Bradly Derrell Jarod

Explore around Rutger

Top names of 1993, Rutger's peak year The 1990s in full Other names that peaked in 1993 Boys' names starting with R Uncommon Dutch Boy Names