Rutherford
Rutherford reached its high-water mark in 1921 at number 1,509, and has been recorded 729 times in all. It has not appeared in the national data since 2023. About 220 Rutherfords are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 55.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Rutherford
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 729
- Estimated living today
- 220
- Median age today
- 55
- Peak year
- 1921
- Best rank
- 1,509th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1880
How old the living Rutherfords are
born that year still alive today
Of the 729 babies given the name since 1880, about 220 are alive — 30 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1970 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin a surname
From Old English hryþer (“cattle”) + ford (“ford”). The first element is from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Rutherfords
- Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893)president of the United States from 1877 to 1881
- Rutherford Alcock (1809–1897)British diplomat
- William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928)American architect
People named Rutherford with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Rutherford is most common
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1921
The most popular boys’ names the year Rutherford peaked:
Related names
Rutherford against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.