If your surname is Ruiz, my starting choice is 鲁 Lǔ. It preserves the first character of the documented transcription 鲁伊斯 Lǔyīsī and works independently as a Chinese surname. Compare 卢 Lú if you prefer a rising tone, or 陆 Lù if you prefer a falling tone and the character associated with land. These are three different surnames, not interchangeable spellings of one “Lu”. 1, 2, 3, 4
Start with the Ruiz you actually say
Living in the United States does not give everyone named Ruiz the same pronunciation. You might use a Spanish pronunciation, an English-language family pronunciation, or different forms in different settings. Use your own spoken surname as the reference before asking how closely a Chinese name matches it.
Spanish Ruiz can end in an s sound or the sound represented by Spanish z in varieties that distinguish it from s. The initial Spanish r is a trill. RAE's account of seseo also makes clear that this is not a simple Spain-versus-the-Americas division. If those distinctions do not describe your family's speech, a short personal recording would be more informative than a nationality-based guess. 5, 5.1
鲁伊斯 is an attested Chinese transcription of a Spanish bearer. It offers a practical written starting point for an English-language guide, but it is not evidence of how every American Ruiz speaks. Mandarin breaks the name into three syllables and adds tones. Taking 鲁 alone leaves out 伊斯, including the written representation of the later vowel and final consonant. 1
鲁: keep the actual first character
鲁 Lǔ, traditional 魯, has a third-tone surname entry in the Ministry of Education dictionary. You do not have to infer its surname status from a foreign name. It retains the opening of 鲁伊斯 exactly, making the link easy to show. 2
Know the other meanings before committing. The dictionary also records the ancient state of Lu and an adjective meaning dull or clumsy. Neither is a description automatically attached to a person called 鲁. If the adjective bothers you, however, it is reasonable to compare another character instead of being told to ignore your own reaction.
The English spelling “Lu” does not show the tone. Keep Lǔ in your pronunciation notes and 鲁 in your introduction. For example: 我姓鲁，鲁伊斯的鲁。Wǒ xìng Lǔ, Lǔyīsī de Lǔ. The sentence explains your choice without suggesting that Ruiz and the Chinese Lu families share an origin.
卢 and 陆: change the surname deliberately
卢 Lú, traditional 盧, keeps the Mandarin consonant and vowel but uses a rising second tone. The dictionary separately records it as a surname. This is a near-sound substitution for 鲁, not a simplified or traditional form of the same character. Its lexical meanings include black, but that colour has no demonstrated connection to Ruiz. 3
陆 Lù, traditional 陸, instead uses a falling fourth tone. It is a documented surname and also a word for land. The other reading liù, used in another context, is not the surname reading recommended here. The image of land may appeal to you, but choosing it adds your preference rather than translating Ruiz. 4
A useful test is to keep your planned given name fixed while changing only the surname. Compare the low third-tone pattern of Lǔ, the rise of Lú and the fall of Lù in the whole name. A competent Mandarin speaker can check the actual combination and explain connected-speech changes. Without a specific given name, no one can promise that all three combinations will sound equally good.
Why the meaning route stops early
The surname dictionary describes Ruiz as a patronymic from Ruy, a shortened form of Rodrigo. This gives a name-history link rather than a direct word for a landscape, profession or virtue. 6
Choosing a character for “king”, “glory” or “power” would require extra steps through the older components of Rodrigo. That can be personal inspiration, but presenting the result as the plain meaning of Ruiz would conceal those steps. There is no need to fill a meaning category with a weak recommendation when the transcription already gives a usable surname.
I would therefore try 鲁 first, then consider 卢 or 陆 according to the full name and your response to the characters. Keep 鲁伊斯 when the aim is to identify the whole foreign surname. These options are for a chosen Chinese name; they do not establish ancestry, and they do not automatically replace Ruiz on official records.
Notes and limits
Xinhua's use of 鲁伊斯: Spanish surname in context, not a universal US pronunciation.
MOE 魯: lǔ, surname, state-name and adjective senses.
MOE 盧: lú and surname use.
MOE 陸: lù surname distinguished from liù.
DAFN2 Ruiz entry reproduced by Ancestry: Ruy–Rodrigo patronymic explanation.
The retained US Census surname table places RUIZ 92nd, with published frequency 237,286 after disclosure-avoidance processing. These are 2020 Census data, released April 14, 2026, not a count of residents in 2026. The official release page explains the file groups. No ethnicity or language is inferred for an individual from that aggregate.
