Rufus

What Rufus means

Means “red”

From Latin rūfus (“red”).

Source: Wiktionary, “Rufus” (revision 93542538), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Rufus?

US: Falling: down from #2766 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #250 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1880, when 163 boys got the name (#88 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 63,262 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 3,486 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in WA (0.15 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Rufus is #3949 in the US and #494 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Rufus were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

If you like Rufus

Boys

• James#6“May He Heel”^*
• Philip#527“fond of horses”^*
• Lawrence#518Editor’s note Down from #499 in 2015 to #518 in 2025 in the US
• Paul#262“small”^*
• Stephen#383“crown, wreath”^*
• Adam#101“earth, man, soil, light brown”^*

For a sister

• Deborah#862“bee”^*
• Barbara#968“strange, foreign”^*
• Amy#257“beloved”^*
• Virginia#525Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1922, with 19,144 babies; 572 in 2025
• Gloria#654“glory”^*
• Laura#379“laurel tree”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Bible, Latin, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Rufus’s. Rank is US 2025.