the Ruel who maintains this website by clicking here
|
Who Else Is Named 'Ruel'?(I didn't know anyone else had my name)
Find out Who's this Ruel? Send email to ruel@pobox.com Greetings! Thank you for visiting my "Ruel" page. This page is part of my attempt to find out how rare my name is (or isn't) as well as to find out about the background(s) and origin(s) of the the name Ruel. Now, I know the origin of my version of the name Ruel. My father and mother took the first syllable ("Ru") of my father's name and the last syllable ("el") of my mother's name and put them together to come up with the name Ruel. They thought they came up with something unique for their boy. Unique? Well, yeah. But I was in for a shock when I went to the beach one day when I was a little boy. I was out playing in the sand when I heard a mother (not mine) call out my name. Boy, was I confused! Who was this lady who I didn't even know and how did she know MY NAME??? Well, it turned out that her son also had MY NAME!!! I was about four or five years old at the time. Reality really hit me at a pretty young age -- there was another Ruel in the world.... Then there are the different but similar names of Raul, Roel, Rael, and Reul (there must be others). Not surprisingly, whenever someone hears or sees the name Ruel, that person will instead use the name Raul, Roel, Rael, Reul, etc. And more often than not that person will mispronouce the name Ruel as "Rall-ooll," or "Roll," or "Rall," or "Rule," or "Ray-Al," or "Ray-All," etc. Ahem. Oh well, my name has been mispronounced and misspelled by non-Ruels since kindergarden. My name, Ruel, the name under consideration here, is correctly pronounced as "Ru-EL" (or "Roo-EL") where the first syllable is like the "Ru" in Ruler and the second syllable is like the spanish "EL." I once told a former co-worker, who was having a great deal of difficulty in pronouncing my name, to remember the word "ruler" whenever she tried to pronounce my name. She ended up calling me the "Ruler of the World." (However, she didn't bow or kiss my ring whenever I was in her presence.) Anyways, there are other people and places out there in the world who have my name. There is the city of Ruel in Ontario, Canada. There is a Ruel Malmaison luxury villa in Paris, France, that was up for sale for 5,500,000 french francs. Amazing. Apparently, there is also a family with the last name of Ruel. The surname of Ruel appears to be french in origin. And, of course, there are the folks who have the first name of Ruel like me. The first-name Ruels all seem to be male. And then there is the author J.R.R. Tolkein, of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings fame, whose full name is John Ronald Ruel Tolkien. Yes, amazing. So far, this page is my list of web pages (other than my own web pages) that I've found where the name Ruel is being used. I have no idea if I'll accumulate a super long list of Ruels. I've come to the conclusion that the name Ruel must be at least somewhat rare if not totally unique. Therefore, I would guess the list should not become really super long. But who knows. Relatively speaking, the number of Ruels in the world must be small in comparison to the number of people who use the more popular names of John, Paul, George, and Ringo (you know what I mean). But I'll end up with a list of some sort. That's where I hope you can help me. If you are a Ruel, send me an email message. If you know someone who has the name of Ruel, send me an email message. If you've seen a web page with the name Ruel, send me an email message. If you know anything about the origin or origins of the name Ruel, send me an email message. I know the origin behind my version of the name Ruel, but I would like to know how the other Ruels got their name. Thanks for visiting.
Best wishes,
Cheers to all,
Some interesting comments have come my way. Ruel Cordero, in San Francisco, thought the name "Ruel" was as unique as a DNA strand ... alas no. Ruel Cordero also points out that there is a "Reuel" in the bible (see more below). Well, a filipino living in Norway who does spell his first name as "Reuel," states that his name has been mispronouced as ROALD or ROAR by Norwegians. Elsewhere, RevBennyD tells me that he went to a Princeton seminary with a guy who had the name of "Reuel" but who preferred being called "Doc."
Virginia C. tells me that her father, Ruel C. Walker, was a former Texas Supreme Court Justice. Virginia C's also says her brother, W. Ruel Walker, is an attorney in Northern California. Virginia's brother, sent a message providing info about the biblical origin of the name "Reuel." At Exodus 2:18, Reuel, better known as Jethro, was Moses' father-in-law. The "Reu" means shepard or friend. And the "el" means god. Geez, I don't mean to get all religious about this whole thing, but this web page is giving me some interesting Sunday school lessons.
So one could say that I have a somewhat unique name that could (or could not) be as rare as a DNA strand that somehow lost an extra blessed letter "e". I guess that extra "e" left the flock. (Since my parents were only putting together two syllables, I never really missed the extra "e".) If anyone knows what happened to the extra "e" or if the dropping of the extra "e" is simply irrelevant because the name "Ruel," which doesn't have the extra "e," has a different origin/meaning (for example, see below) than the biblical name "Reuel," which has the extra "e", well, let me know.
As for other origins and meanings, elsewhere, Craig Ruel says, as far as he knows, "Ruel" as a surname is french in origin (I figured that much before) and that the french "Ruel" surname means "boss man," which Craig says is where he falls under. Ahem....
Still elsewhere, Ruel Compton notes that in his hometown of Columbia, Kentucky, there are four other first-name Ruels in addition to himself. Despite all the Ruels around him, Ruel Compton never seemed to have a problem with his name when he was growing up. However, later in life he found people just couldn't deal with the name "Ruel." "People couldn't spell it, couldn't say it and couldn't remember it." When he moved to Indiana, his then-to-be wife referred to him as "the guy I'm dating from Indiana." Ruel Compton notes that, despite the name "Ruel" being mispronounced and misspelled, all of us first-name Ruel guys were fortunately not named "Carroll" or "Shirley." (All due apologies to all of the Carrolls and Shirleys in the world.)
Some folks are asking about certain Ruels: Ruel Abello, who moved to Australia, where are you -- dzeric is looking for you. And Christian Ruel, whose first language is french, thinks Maurice Ruel is his cousin.
BTW, the kids in Room 24 at Aragon Avenue School, and particularly Rouella, who also happens to be from the Philippines, say "hi."
As for me, that's all for now, folks.
Best Wishes,
ANOTHER UPDATE (13SEP96):
A few more interesting comments and other items come my way....
Donald Ruel from Quebec, Canada, provides some information about the Family Ruel. The Ruel Family has a long history. They came in expeditions from France in 1608 with Samuel de Champlain to discover La Nouvelle France and to found the city of Quebec. And there are families with derivative names that add a suffix to the front of the name like CARUEL,TRUEL, etc. Fascinating.
Elsewhere, Paul Yandle notes that there is a Professor (Emeritus) Ruel Foster with the English Department at West Virginia University.
And with more family relations, but on a first-name basis, RuelMen@aol.com says that his name is Ruel and that he has a brother-in-law who is also named Ruel.
And with still even more family relations, Craig Hall says that his grandfather is named Ruel Elden Hall. Craig visited this web page about two minutes (11:58 pm?) before his grandfather's birthday on August 13. Craig says that his grandfather's mother (Craig's great-grandmother) named his grandfather "Ruel" from a name "Reuel" in the old testament of the bible (See previous update for info about the biblical origin). Craig, being fond of his grandfather and of the name "Ruel," named his son Stephen Ruel Hall continuing the line of Ruels in his family.
Happy reunion news: Dzeric finally found the Ruel Abello who moved to Australia. Ruel Abello writes about the "Tukayo" we Ruels share and the origin of his version of the name "Ruel": "'Tukayo' is a Tagalog (Philippines) word for namesake.... My Ru came from Ruben, my father's name, and the el, from Ely my mother. There are thousands more named Ruel in the Philippines. Ruel Vernal is a movie villain; Rowell Santiago used to be a screen idol. The el is usually pronouced 'wel'. Dzeric has found me, thanks."
As for yet even more origins, Ruel P. Laurenciana, a filipino mainframe
programer/analyst, writes that his mother would laughingly tell him she
came up with his first name from the wrapper of "tinapa" (tagalog for
smoked fish). His best friend otherwise tells him that the name Ruel may
have come from the Latin or Greek word "Rua" which means "really dark" or
"pitch dark." Latin, Greek? Hmm, smells kinda fishy ... must be the tinapa....
Yet even elsewhere from the plant world, while looking up some information on the Compton Interactive Encyclopedia CD, I came across the following entry:
That's all for now, folks.
Best Wishes to Ruels and non-Ruels everywhere,
YET ANOTHER COMMENT (7DEC96):
R. Nelda Hernandez, from Austin, Texas, writes about his nine-year old nephew whose name is Ruel:
Another Ruel, a.k.a. Chrmn888@aol.com, writes in stating, "I am named Ruel too. I was born in the Philippines and migrated to Canada in 1990. Presently, I am living in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada - a city about 15 minutes from Vancouver (a more well-known city in B.C.)." Thanks for the email, Ruel!
Yet another Ruel writes in: Jean Conrad Ruel, also known as J.C. Ruel, writes that his family originated from France and came to Canada starting with Clement Ruel who was born in Normandie, France. So, it sounds like that Clement Ruel was the first Ruel in Canada, and most likely the first Ruel in all of North America. Thanks for the info, J.C.!
With the holiday season here, I should mention how I always get teased by people singing "Noel" by substituting "Ruel" in the holiday song. I'm guessing that other Ruels get teased in the same way. (smile)
Bye for now, folks!
Best wishes,
A MOTHER'S COMMENT (10DEC96):
Carolyn Lungren writes about her son Ruel:
Hi, Ruel,
My name is Carolyn and my husband Ralph and I have a son named Ruel. He
is 9 years old and we adopted him from Quezon City, Philippines when he
was 2 yrs. old. He was born in Manila. His birthparents gave him the
name Ruel. I do not know the reason he was named Ruel, as we never met
his birthparents, but Ralph and I really liked the name Ruel and we also
thought that keeping his birthname would give him a connection to his
birth family history. Yes, people also call him Rule, Raul, Rowel, and
just about any other variation a person can think of. Ruel almost
always corrects the person by adamantly stating, "My name is RUEL".
Thanks for creating your home page! It's interesting to read about all
the other people named Ruel.
Carolyn
There are a bunch of Ruels (first-name Ruels, that is) in the Philippines. It is said that the name of a person determines a lot of things about that person. All self-evident biases aside, I like to think that the name "Ruel" is a very unique name. I think your Ruel realizes that not only his name is unique and that his name has to be correctly pronounced, but that he is a unique person also. Thanks for your message, Carolyn!
Bye for now!
MORE COMMENTS (25FEB97):
Olivier Ruel sent in a message on "RUEL, what else?"
Can you imagine that: all the Ruels from around the world in one place at the same time? What a thought! Thanks for the email, Olivier!
Dominic Ruel also writes in and saying, "Hello, my name is Dominic Ruel, and I live in Quebec City, Canada!!!"
And Brenda Holstine writes in about her favorite cousin:
Elinor D. Hasty also writes in about J.R.R. Tolkein (John Ronald Ruel
Tolkien, the author): "It is my understanding that the name Ruel used by
J.R.R. Tolkein was a Hebrew word meaning 'friend of God.' As Tolkein was
a devout Catholic, he used the name for all three of his children,
following the idea that children become their names." Thanks for the new
info, Elinor!
And thanks for the email, Olivier, Dominic, Brenda, and Elinor!
Bye for now!
SHORT COMMENT (7MAR97):
Ruel Smith writes in and says, "Hi, I just thought I'd e-mail someone else
with my name. Until now I didn't think I had such a popular name. How
many other Ruel's do you know?, I'd appreciate a response. Peace, Love,
& Happiness, Ruel." I don't have any numbers, but there are a bunch of Ruels
out there. Thanks for the message, Ruel!
Karen from the Virgina Mason Medical Center wrote in with an interesting
web page address. If you have a surname that you want to research, check out the Hall of
Names International web page at: http://www.infokey.com/hall/trace.htm.
Thanks for the info, Karen!
Thanks for visiting!
MORE RUELS (15APR97):
Ruel Smith writes in again and states that he was born in Guyana,
South America. And he asks, "Any theories on the number of filipino Ruels?
On another random search for my name I came across your page. Keep up the
good work, I had no idea there were so many of us. I have also suffered
with years of mispronunciation of my name, but I think I now have a way of
getting it across. I'm also writing to ask if I can attach your homepage to
mine. I'd like to let the world know once and for all how to pronounce RUEL."
Sure, Ruel, send me your web page address and I'll put a link to it here.
Another Ruel from mozcom.com writes in saying, "Hi. My name is Ruel too and
I'm from the Beautiful Island of Philippines. Well, I'm glad to know that
there is so many Ruels in the World ... I met some Ruels but they spell
their names differently like Rowell and Roel." Thanks for the message. And
keep them coming in.
Bye for now!
FATHER'S MIDDLE NAME (22APR97):
Mona McGill writes, "I have two family members with the name Ruel."
Mona states, "Hello, I am from Oregon, the first time, as a kid, I
learned what my dad's middle name was, I laughed. I asked my grandma,
'Why did you name my dad's middle name as Ruel?' I learned it is
because she had a brother named Ruel Peddicord. So my father, Larry
Ruel McGill, was named after him. I thought that he had the most
uncommon name I ever heard of, and then I saw your web site!
Thanks for the message, Mona!
Cheers Everyone!
BANJO RUEL; TOLKEIN'S MIDDLE NAME (18MAY97):
Jerome and Sandra Lamprecht write in to say, "In the mid-1960, I attended
elementary school with a boy who's older brother was named Ruel
(pronounced "Rule"). He played the banjo, I believe. And he performed at
the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee." Wow, a banjo-playing Ruel who
played at the Grand Ole Opry! There had to be some of that good old country
music in a Ruel somewhere. Twang! Thanks for the message, Jerome and Sandra!
Erik Barth writes and says, "I don't want to disappoint you but J.R.R.
Tolkien is named: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, as you can find in all
British Tolkien books (Like 'The Hobbit', which I checked tonight).
There are quite a few of misspellings made in Tolkien's name:
Regards,
Well, I guess we have an official word on that. But since that "Reuel" name
is so similar to "Ruel," I think I can safely keep him listed on this page.
Anyways, all the Reuels out there must have had their name misspelled and
mispronouced just like the Ruels that I'm more associated with. I guess we
can also go with the published misspellings of Tolkien's name also. Thanks
for the information, Erik!
Bye for now!
RUEL BARRUS AND THE MORMON BATTALION (25MAY97):
Scott Barrus writes about his great, great grandfather:
Thanks for the message, Scott!
Best wishes,
STILL MISSPELLED EVEN ON THE NET (4JUL97):
I exchanged the following messages with someone named Nory:
To: Nory
To: ruel@pobox.com
Bye for now!
STILL YET ANOTHER RUEL (1SEP97):
Ruel Abadam writes in and says,
Happy Labor Day, Folks!
RUEL I. BATACANDOLO GOES NAVY (7APR98):
Ruel I. Batacandolo writes and says he is doing good:
Ruel I. Batacandolo
BROTHER RUELLEE WRITES IN (16APR98)
Ruellee says his friends call me "Ruel":
Ruellee
RUEL ROBERT BROWN'S GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S NAME WAS PRONOUNCED "RULE" (20APR99):
Joann Brown writes in:
I'm sure there are other female Ruels out there.
Ruel
INDIANA HWY 37 IS NAMED RUEL W. STEELE MEMORIAL HIGHWAY (26APR99):
Hoosier Pat.Wachtel writes in about a Ruel you can drive over:
Pat.Wachtel
Could be? But would any other Hoosiers happen to know?
Ruel
BOWLING ALLEY RUEL PRONOUNCES HIS NAME "RULE" (26APR99):
Richard Barnet writes about someone at a bowling alley:
Richard Barnet, Operations Manager
RUÉL WITH ACCENT ON THE "E" (27MAY99):
Ruél R Faruque writes in:
The one and only (I thought) Ruél
SUSAN L. REUL HAS A FIRST NAME TOO (30MAY99):
Susan L. Reul writes in:
Susan L. Reul
ONE ORIGIN OF "RUEL" IS FROM "RUHEL" (22JUN99):
Jason Jonathan Ruel writes in about one origin of name Ruel:
To start:
Thanks for this website
FAMILY OF RUEL BILLY BIDWELL JR. CALLS HIM "CHUCK" (7JUL99):
Ruel Billy Bidwell Jr. says he was named after his dad Ruel Billy Bidwell Sr.
who was named after Ruel Gilbert who was married to the daughter of JC Penny:
I'm going to bible college and will becoming an evangelist... I am a
christian.... I pray for the sick and perform deliverances (exorcisms) I
have seen people healed from migranes to having a person healed... who
had a broken floating disc in her neck reattached. No Joke... God is a
God of miracles...
I was named after my dad who was named after Ruel Gilbert except my dad's
name is RB. He thought it stood for Ruel Billy... so that's my name...
I'm currently living in Salem Oregon but I am from Toledo, Oregon... 7
miles East of Newport Oregon.
Take care.
SEARCHING FOR INFO ABOUT GREAT-GRANDFATHER RUEL REED GEORGE (28AUG99):
Jackie Ginn writes in:
Jackie Ginn
SEARCHING FOR ANDRE AUGUSTIN RUEL SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE (2SEP99):
Fred Mussler is looking for a Ruel also:
Regards,
FATHER'S NAME AND MOM'S BROTHER'S NAME IS RUEL (3SEP99):
Tanta J. thought the Ruel name was just a Kentucky thing:
Tanta J.
LOVE THAT NAME RUEL (5SEP99):
JoAnn Smith Brandon is doing research about Ruels along the John L. Smiths genealogy line:
JoAnn Smith Brandon
Sorry, JoAnn, I'm not in that line. My parents made up my "Ruel" name. They didn't name me after
any famous Ruel and I'm not descended from a long line of Ruels. My folks thought they were making up
a unique name.
Cheers,
RUEL NAMED AFTER HIS UNCLE (17SEP99):
Mishagauld searching for origins of the name Ruel:
Mishagauld from Calgary North
RUELL AND RUEL ARE GOOD NAMES (30SEP99):
Nalgas D. Lemur likes the names Ruell and Ruel:
-Nalgas D. Lemur, aka "Ruell" (online)
Thanks for writing in. That's a first. Someone with another name wanting to use Ruel, or Ruell, as a
name. Although not as common as other names, Ruel and Ruell are names that people like.
Bye for now,
RUEL THE III WRITES IN (3OCT99):
Ruel Minott III says he was named after his father and grandfather:
Ruel Minott III
Thanks for writing in!
Best wishes to all,
MOSES' FATHER-IN-LAW REUEL (12OCT99):
Pastor Dan McIver wrote in with the following:
The origin of your name or a variation of it (Reuel) is actually quite old. Did you know that Moses' father-in-law was called Reuel? Look up Exodus chapter 2 verse 18 ff.) He also was called Jethro (Exodus 3:1). Reuel meant friend of God, while Jethro meant excellence. Reuel was apparently his personal name, while Jethro may have been a more official or honorary name.
Dan McIver
P.S. I am a pastor of a church in Calgary, AB, and noticed your web site as I was researching a Bible Study on Moses and his in-laws.
Ruel
RUELs WERE IN IRELAND AFTER FRENCH FLEET SUNK (15DEC99)
Jim Ruel wrote in:
|
|
the Ruel who maintains this website by clicking here
|
Find out Who's this Ruel?
Thank You For Visiting
Who Else Is Named 'Ruel'?
Also Be Sure To
Click & Visit
Ruel.Net
© 1996-2007