# Ruthven (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/ruthven/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A habitational surname from Scottish Gaelic.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 529 |
| US rank (2010) | 41,164 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 583,640 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.7% (510 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɹɪvən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Possibly from Scottish Gaelic ruadh (“red”) + mhaighin (“place”). Some places with this name may be from Pictish, equivalent to Welsh rhudd (“red”) + Welsh maen (“stone”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Ruthven in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 97% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.9% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.1% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Ruthven in the United States.

## People named Ruthven

- Kay Hagan, American politician (1953-2019)

## Similar surnames

Rathbun, Rathbone.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.