Holiday Calendar

National Ruth Day

Next celebratedFriday, March 12, 2027

Most Ruths are named for someone, and behind the whole line stands a Moabite widow who chose a foreign country over her own. National Ruth Day belongs to all of them, whether or not the family story reaches that far.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMarch 12
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

It arrived by listing, not by proclamation.

National Ruth Day circulates as a name day on holiday listings and in social posts. No founder, organisation or establishing record has been located, and no source explains why it falls on March 12.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

Forty-six to third in the space of three years

In 1890 the name Ruth ranked 46th among American girls in the federal name records. Three years later it ranked third, the highest rank it has held in any year those files cover. National Ruth Day commemorates none of it.

Across those three years, no girls' name in the 1890 top hundred climbed further. Ruth gained 43 places, and Esther, the next fastest riser in that group, gained 36.

The day itself is unclaimed. No filing, organisation or announcement accounts for it, and nothing on the record explains the date it carries.

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ORIGINS

Ruth Day history

INTRODUCTION

The first Ruth was a foreigner who refused to go home. She was a Moabite, married to the son of a Judaean couple living in Moab, and when her husband died she followed her mother-in-law Naomi to Judah instead of returning to her own people.

That choice is the whole book, and the book is old. Britannica dates it to the late 5th or 4th century BC. Ruth went on to marry Boaz and bear Obed, whom the closing verses call the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David, though Britannica records that this genealogy is considered a late addition.

CHAPTER 01

From scripture to an American fashion

The name reached English speakers long after the book was written. Behind the Name records Ruth in use as a Christian name since the Protestant Reformation, and no source ties it to a date in March.

The American record picks up with a birth in New York. Ruth Cleveland was born there in 1891, the first child of Grover and Frances Cleveland, and the family returned to the White House after the 1892 election. Behind the Name's account says only that the name became very popular in America following her birth.

Whatever drove it, the name held. Ruth stayed inside the American top ten until 1930 and inside the top hundred until 1961, then declined for the rest of the century.

CHAPTER 02

A day with nothing behind it

The observance itself is recent and thinly documented. Of four holiday-listing sites checked for it, only one carries a page for the day at all.

The earliest archived copy of that page anywhere dates from August 2022. That fixes a floor on when the day was circulating and nothing more; it is not a founding date, and no founding date has been found.

The gap is the whole of it. The name is counted year by year in two national registries; the date is documented nowhere.

TIMELINE

Timeline

US name records begin

The first federal file lists 234 girls named Ruth, ranking the name 93rd.

A president's daughter is born

Ruth Cleveland, first child of Grover and Frances Cleveland, was born in New York City.

The top-ten run ends

Ruth ranked tenth among American girls that year and eleventh the next.

Baseball proclaims its own Ruth day

Commissioner Happy Chandler proclaimed April 27 Babe Ruth Day, with a celebration at Yankee Stadium.

Out of the American top 100

Ruth ranked 96th that year, and by 1962 it had fallen to 104th.

The lowest annual count

802 American girls were named Ruth, fewer than in any year since 1888.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Ruth Day Matters

REVIVAL

363rd in 2006. 173rd in 2025.

Ruth bottomed out at 363rd among American girls in 2006 and has moved back up since. By 2025 it stood 173rd in the federal name files, with 1,781 girls given the name.

SCRIPTURE

The name comes with a book, and a festival

Ruth is one of just two women in the Hebrew Bible with a book named after her, alongside Esther. That book is one of the five Megillot and is the festal scroll for Shavuot, fifty days after Passover.

REGISTRIES

The name ranks much lower in England and Wales

The Office for National Statistics put Ruth 542nd in England and Wales for 2025, with 73 girls given the name. It sits several hundred places lower there than in the American tables for the same year, so where the name stands depends on which country is counting.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Ruth Day by the Numbers

26,102
US girls recorded as Ruth, 1920
39
Unbroken years in the US girls' top ten
82
Unbroken years in the US girls' top 100
146
US annual name files listing Ruth

GOOD TO KNOW

National Ruth Day Around the World

Estonia

Ruth's name day falls on January 4

Sweden

The Swedish form Rut shares that January 4 date

Czechia

The Czech form Rút has March 14, the closest traditional Ruth date to this one

Spain

June 4, listed for both the Ruth and Rut spellings

Denmark

Ruth is marked on August 8

Austria

Ruth is marked on September 1

France

Ruth is marked on October 2

Norway

The national calendar keeps the form Rut on November 28

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Grover Cleveland's daughter.

The truth

The Curtiss Candy Company has given that explanation since the 1920s, and Snopes rates it False. Curtiss's own statement had Ruth Cleveland visiting its plant when the company was getting started; she died in 1904 and the company was founded in Chicago in 1916.

The myth

Ruth is Hebrew for 'compassionate friend'.

The truth

Behind the Name gives the name as probably derived from reʿuṯ, 'female friend', and Etymonline as probably a contraction of reuth, 'companion, friend, fellow woman'. Neither reference work adds 'compassionate', and both hedge with 'probably'.

The myth

The word 'ruthless' is the name Ruth with a negative ending on it.

The truth

They are separate words. Ruthless is recorded in English from the early 14th century as reutheles, built on reuthe, 'pity, compassion', plus -less, while the name is Hebrew. The positive relatives died out: ruthful fell from use after the late 17th century and ruthness went earlier still.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Ruth Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up Ruth's name day in your own country

Behind the Name lists the national calendars that carry Ruth and its local forms Rut and Rút. Check yours and see which date your country actually keeps, at Behind the Name.

READ

Read the Book of Ruth straight through

The story runs from Moab to Bethlehem and closes on a list of names. Bible Odyssey walks through it and through the arguments scholars still have about it.

CHECK

Check where the name stands in the official tables

The Social Security Administration publishes the full annual counts of American given names, free to download. Look up the year someone you know was born and see where Ruth sat that year, using the national data files.

ASK

Ask a Ruth who she was named after

A registry records the name and the year, never the reason behind it. Ask the person, and you get the part no dataset can hold.

SETTLE

Settle the Baby Ruth argument with the record

The candy bar's official origin story has been checked and rated false. Snopes lays out the dates that make the company's account impossible.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Ruth Day?

1 / 8

In which year did Ruth reach its highest rank among American girls' names?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found, so it is a normal working day. A search of the US Federal Register returns no documents naming it.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

13sources
3primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
US Social Security Administration2025 data year
Popular Baby Names: national data files
Annual counts of names given to babies born in the United States, one file per year from 1880, drawn from Social Security card applications and limited to names with at least five occurrences in a year. Every American figure on this page was computed from these files and checked against SSA's own published decade tables.
View source
Office for National Statistics2025 data year
Baby names for girls in England and Wales, 2025
The full England and Wales girls' name table for 2025, giving every name with its rank and count. Ruth appears with 73 girls at rank 542.
View source
US National Archives25 April 2024
Babe Ruth Day (Pieces of History)
The National Archives' account of how April 27 became Babe Ruth Day, proclaimed by Commissioner Albert 'Happy' Chandler in 1947 with a celebration at Yankee Stadium.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Ruth
The reference entry for Ruth, covering the hedged Hebrew etymology, the biblical narrative, the name's entry into English use at the Protestant Reformation, and its American rise following the birth of Ruth Cleveland.
View source
Behind the Name
Name days for the name Ruth
The national calendars that carry the spelling Ruth: Estonia on January 4, Spain on June 4, Denmark on August 8, Austria on September 1 and France on October 2.
View source
Behind the Name
Name days for the name Rut
The calendars carrying the local forms of Ruth: Sweden on January 4, the Czech Rút on March 14, Spain on June 4 and Norway on November 28.
View source
Behind the Name
Name days in Norway
Norway's full name-day calendar, which lists Rut on November 28.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Book of Ruth
The book's place among the Ketuvim and the five Megillot, its role as the festal scroll for Shavuot fifty days after Passover, the plot from Moab to Bethlehem, and the scholarly dating together with the view that the Davidic genealogy is a late addition.
View source
Bible Odyssey
Ruth
The Society of Biblical Literature's public scholarship article on Ruth, which states that she is one of just two women in the Hebrew Bible with a book named after her, alongside Esther, and reads her choices chapter by chapter.
View source
White House Historical Association
Frances Cleveland
The First Lady's biography, which records the birth of the Clevelands' first child Ruth in New York City in 1891, the family's return to the White House after the 1892 election, and Ruth's death in 1904.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Ruthless: etymology, origin and meaning
Traces ruthless to the early 14th century form reutheles, built on reuthe meaning pity or compassion, and records the loss of the positive relatives ruthful and ruthness. Its linked entry gives the proper name a separate Hebrew origin.
View source
Merriam-Webster1 July 2026
Ruth (dictionary entry)
Lists the English common noun ruth, defined as compassion for the misery of another and as sorrow for one's own faults, separately from the biblical proper noun.
View source
Snopes31 December 1998
Was the Baby Ruth Candy Bar Named After Ruth Cleveland?
The fact check rating the Ruth Cleveland explanation False, with the founding of Curtiss Candy in Chicago in 1916, the 1921 relaunch of Kandy Kake as the five-cent Baby Ruth bar, and the plant-visit detail in Curtiss's own statement that Ruth Cleveland's death in 1904 makes impossible.
View source
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