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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

ReuvenIn Hebrew: ראובן · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: רְאוּבֵןRomanization: r'uvén

Reuven (Hebrew: ראובן) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 11,436 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 72 boys and ranked #223. Its peak year was 1951, with 318 babies.

People in Israel
11,436
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
72
rank #223
Peak year
1951
318 babies
USA, 2025
58
rank #2,363

Writing and saying Reuven

In Hebrew letters the name is ראובן, read right to left. Reuven is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "r'uvén" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Reuben (first son of Jacob, by his wife Leah). Also Reuven
  • Reuben, Reuven: one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
  • a male given name, Reuben and Reuven
Traditionally derived from רְאוּ (r'ú, “see [masculine plural imperative]”) + בֵּן (ben, “son”); the literal meaning is therefore roughly, "See, all: a son!". For other proposals, see Encyclopaedia Biblica, volume 4.

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Reuven by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Reuven: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Reuven in English-speaking countries

Reuven in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202558#2,3632024 (59)
United Kingdom20253#5,0612005 (5)
England and Wales20253#4,9702005 (5)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Reuven has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Reuven

How do you write Reuven in Hebrew?

Reuven is written ראובן in Hebrew (with vowel points: רְאוּבֵן). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "r'uvén".

How many people in Israel are named Reuven?

11,436 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name ראובן: 5 women and 11,431 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Reuven a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named ראובן are men.

What does the name Reuven mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Reuben (first son of Jacob, by his wife Leah). Also Reuven" Etymology: Traditionally derived from רְאוּ (r'ú, “see [masculine plural imperative]”) + בֵּן (ben, “son”); the literal meaning is therefore roughly, "See, all: a son!". For other proposals, see Encyclopaedia Biblica, volume 4.

Is Reuven used outside Israel?

The name Reuven appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 58 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,363), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 3 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.