# Rutherford (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/rutherford/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “cattle”, “ford” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈrʌðərfərd/, 3 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 729 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 729 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | not in the ONS data |

## Etymology

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

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 5 | 5,602 |
| 1977 | 7 | 5,021 |
| 1978 | 7 | 4,951 |
| 1990 | 7 | 7,029 |
| 2007 | 5 | 14,001 |
| 2012 | 5 | 13,826 |
| 2014 | 6 | 11,849 |
| 2016 | 8 | 9,509 |
| 2017 | 8 | 9,527 |
| 2018 | 11 | 7,523 |
| 2019 | 5 | 13,759 |
| 2020 | 6 | 11,749 |
| 2021 | 11 | 7,480 |
| 2022 | 9 | 8,852 |
| 2023 | 11 | 7,647 |

## People named Rutherford

- William Rutherford Mead, American architect (1846–1928)
- Robert Rutherford McCormick, American lawyer, Army officer & newspaper owner (1880–1955)
- John Heaton, American Skeleton racer (1908-1976)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.