Ruta
From Hebrew, meaning "friend, companion". Fewer than 1,500 women in Poland carry it, so most people here will never have met one, and it's given a little more often now than it was a decade ago.
Ruta Pronunciation
Ruta is pronounced ROO-tah (/ˈruta/).
What Ruta means
Where Ruta comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ruta reaches Polish from Hebrew, sharing its root with the biblical Ruth, written רוּת. The name has been read as friend or companion, and the Book of Ruth gives that reading a face: the young widow who would not leave Naomi, following her into a foreign land. A companion who stayed.
In Polish gardens, ruta is also the word for rue, a bitter blue-green herb once planted along borders and cottage fences. The two words have grown up beside each other, yet the personal name keeps its older Hebrew line back to that sense of friend.
You still meet Ruta on a class register or an imieniny card, short and unadorned, asking for no diminutive to soften it. Four letters, two syllables, and a meaning that stays near: przyjaciółka, towarzyszka, a friend who keeps you company.
How many people are named Ruta
1 in 15473 women in Poland is named Ruta. 1,457 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #806 among female names.
Ruta's popularity over time
5 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #956 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2013. Still the #806 name among living women, even as it slips to #956 among newborns.
Where Ruta is most popular
Ruta is most popular in Silesian, 245% above the national average (4 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+177%) and Lower Silesian (+150%).
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Silesian4 girls born+245%
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Masovian5 girls born+177%
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Lower Silesian2 girls born+150%
Ruta as a middle name
Ruta is a first name for 1,457 women in Poland and a middle name for another 588, a 71/29 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 297th, between Hiacynta (595) and Aurora (587).
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295
600Isabel
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296
595Hiacynta
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297588Ruta
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298
587Aurora
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299
585Sarah