RUTH WOOD

Biblical name (of uncertain derivation) of a Moabite woman who left her own people to remain with her mother-in-law Naomi, and afterwards became the wife of Boaz and an ancestress of David. Her story is told in the book of the Bible that bears her name. It was used among the Puritans in England in the 16th century, partly because of its association with the English vocabulary word ruth meaning ‘compassion’. It has always been popular as a Jewish name, but is now also widespread among people of many different cultures and creeds.

English and Scottish: 1. mainly a topographic name for someone who lived in or by a wood or a metonymic occupational name for a woodcutter or forester, from Middle English wode ‘wood’ (Old English wudu). 2. nickname for a mad, eccentric, or violent person, from Middle English wōd ‘mad’, ‘frenzied’ (Old English wād), as in Adam le Wode, Worcestershire 1221.