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First name origin & meaning:

Hebrew: Behold, a son

First name variations: Rube, Ruben, Reubin, Reuven, Reuby, Ben, Benny, Reuben

Last name origins & meanings:

  1. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Hebrew personal name Reuven (interpreted in Genesis 29:32 as reu ‘behold’ + ben ‘a son’). This Biblical name influenced the selection of Ashkenazic surnames that are ostensibly derived from the German, Yiddish, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian vocabulary word rubin ‘ruby’ (from Late Latin rubinus (lapis), a derivative of rubeus ‘red’).
  2. German and Swiss German: from a pet form of the personal name Ruprecht (see Rupprecht).
  3. Italian: variant of Rubino.
  4. French: metonymic occupational name for a jeweler, from Old French rubi ‘ruby’.