Boy · Latin
Rufus
Say it: ROO-fus
Meaning
Latin rufus, 'red-haired'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Used as a nickname and then as a given name; common in 19th-century America.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 36,093 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1880, about 1 in 678 boys
- 26 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
| Spanish | Rufo |
|---|---|
| Italian | Rufo |
| German | Rufus |
Famous bearers
- Rufus, son of Simon of Cyrene in Mark 15
- William Rufus (William II), king of England
- Rufus King, American founding-era statesman
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Roman inscriptions and tombstones
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.