Rui

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Руй in RU Russia, UA Ukraine, KZ Kazakhstan.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Rui is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name96K records spelled Rui13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Australia, Germany

  Languages: English, German, Danish

  Also written Ruì, Ruï, Rüî, Rùi

• French given name31K records spelled Rui5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ruï, Rūï, Rúi

• a separate given name14K records spelled Rui3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, China, India, United Kingdom

  Also written Rúi, Ruì

• Malay given name6.0K records spelled Rui3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China

  Languages: Malay, Indonesian

  Also written Ru'I

• Vietnamese given name1.7K records spelled Rui15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, China, Netherlands

  Also written Nhue, Nhuệ, Nhuế, Rùi, Nhuê

63 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Rui is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Afectuosa, cariñosa

  as a name·25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

• In pmf, thorn, spike; kind of rattan (_nanga_) with sharp thorns, the leaves of which are used as roof thatch

  as a word·Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

• In Latin, first-person singular perfect active indicative of ruō

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• ISO 639-3 language code for Rufiji.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In sdc, masculine/feminine singular of rùiu

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 54 years between 1967–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Rui Duarte de Barrosb. 1960GWGuinea-Bissauan prime minister
• Rui Maria de Araújob. 1964TLPrime minister of East Timor
• Rui da Silvab. 1968PTPortuguese DJ
• Rui Vitóriab. 1970PTPortuguese footballer and manager
• Rui Costab. 1972PTPortuguese footballer (born 1972)
• Rui Jorgeb. 1973PTPortuguese footballer
• Rui Patríciob. 1988PTPortuguese association football player
• Mário Ruib. 1991PTPortuguese association football player
• Rui Silvab. 1994PTPortuguese footballer (born 1994)
• Rui Hachimurab. 1998JPJapanese basketball player (born 1998)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 502 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Rui?

We estimate roughly 34 thousand people bear Rui (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Rui have the most bearers?

Rui is most frequently recorded in Portugal, where it is most often spelled rui.

How common is Rui compared with other names?

In Portugal, Rui is the 12th most common given name of 19,429 given names recorded there.

Is Rui a male or female name?

Rui is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Rui mean?

Recorded meaning: do latim arrugia; indica morador junto a arroio, rio ou córrego