Rutherford

Boys' name

Cattle + ford

Rutherford has been given to 729 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1921, with 25 recorded.

Babies named Rutherford, 2023

1 in 301,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rutherford: meaning, origin, and history

Cattle + ford

surname transfer

What Rutherford means

Rutherford means “cattle + ford”, associated with hryþer and ford.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Old English hryþer (“cattle”) + ford (“ford”). The first element is from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Rutherford (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Rutherford is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Rutherford comes through Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz.

Rutherford is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Rutherford is pronounced /ˈrʌðərfərd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 729 boys were recorded with the name Rutherford between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 25 in 1921; its best national rank was #736 in 1880.

How common is Rutherford?

Rutherford had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023: 1 in 301,000; 11 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only: 1 in 155,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 208,877 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Rutherford 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 2023 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 208,877 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rutherford. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rutherfords were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rutherford was born before 1930 — so the typical Rutherford is around 95 today.

Median birth year: 1930; About 95 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 21.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 11.7%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 199; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (158).

Is Rutherford 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: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1921 (25)
Years since peak: 104; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 27.2% average annual change
Best rank ever: #736; 1880

Where Rutherford is used

Across 1910–2025, Rutherford was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,487,170 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Florida1 in —
2Kentucky1 in —
3Texas1 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. Rutherford has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rutherford by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #736; 1880
Peak year: 1921; 25 that year
First recorded: 1880
Last recorded: 2023
All-time count: 729
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Rutherford

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

Ruthford Rutledge Rockford Woodford Hartford Ashford Ruthvik Rutger Radford Stafford Guilford Hansford Beauford Glenford Sandford Crawford Redford Labradford Rexford Linford Medford Tilford Raeford Leanord

Sibling names for Rutherford

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

Elvera Tressie Lavinia Myrtis Margarette Adell Idella Dortha

For a brother

Hardy Antone Harmon Arlie Burl Dewitt Patsy Milford

Explore around Rutherford

Top names of 1921, Rutherford's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1880 Boys' names starting with R