Etymology: < the male forename Reuben (also spelt Ruben; post-classical Latin Ruben (Vulgate), Hellenistic Greek Ρουβην (Septuagint)) < Hebrew Rĕ'ūḇēn (Genesis 29:32, etc.), the name of the firstborn son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Leah. The transferred use denoting a yokel is probably due to the supposed widespread occurrence of biblical forenames in rustic communities (compare the preference for such forenames among the Amish). Compare later rube n.The origin of the name is uncertain. In Genesis 29:32, two folk etymologies are given for it, both based on utterances by Reuben's mother Leah after the birth of her son: Hebrew rā'ā bĕʿonyī ‘he (i.e. God) has looked on my affliction’ and ye'ĕḥāḇanī ‘he (i.e. my husband) will love me’. They allude to the fact that Leah had previously been barren, and hence unloved by her husband Jacob, and became pregnant when God took pity on her. Later rabbinical exegesis, e.g. in a Midrash on Genesis, derives the name from Hebrew rĕ'ū bēn ‘behold, a son!’. The name is attested in English with reference to the son of Jacob and other Hebrews from the Old English period onwards (in Old English and Middle English in the form Ruben). As a male forename, it was apparently not adopted until the Reformation.

Etymology: Apparently ultimately < the personal name Reuben (see Reuben n.¹).Various claims have been made as to the origin of the sandwich. It is most commonly said to have been devised either by Reuben Kolakofsky, a grocer from Omaha, Nebraska, in the early 1920s, or by Arthur Reuben, owner of the former Reuben's Delicatessen in New York, in 1914. However, neither of these two claims is supported by concrete evidence. It is unclear whether there is any connection with Reuben n.¹