My father came from a town in Poland (probably now in Ukraine) called Ruda.
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Phyllis Kurland
Port Washington, New York

There is a substantial co-hort of Rudy/Ruda surnames from the shtetl of Jalowka/Yaluvka, some 30 miles east of Bialystok.

Todd P. Leavitt
Santa Monica, CA (USA)

Hello,
I also have extended family with surname RUDA.  Henriette/Jette RUDA born 1856 married Israel RUDA born 1854 Germany/Prussia.
If this matches your family, please contact me at gaines_joyce@...  
Thank you.

Joyce Goldberg Gaines
Florida, USA

FWIW in 1947 there was one Ruda registered in Netherlands in the province of Gelderland (adjoins the German border). In 2007 there were <5 registered.
https://www.cbgfamilienamen.nl/nfb/detail_naam.php?nfd_naam=Ruda&gba_naam=ruda&info=kaart1947&operator=eq&taal=#kaartweergave
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What country are we talking about?  In some parts of Eastern Europe, Rode is a woman's name. Sometimes, when Jews had to take names in the early 1800s, families selected the wife's name if she was known the the marketplace while the husband stayed indoors all day studying torah. 
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Peter Cohen
California

Tiv Gittin, a source for the forms of given names for the writing of gittin (bills of divorce), quotes,Sefer Shomos, an earlier source that he heard the name Ruda in Belgrade, and that it was the name of an specific herb. The Tiv Gittin himself that in his area (he lived in Brodie) the name and the herb are pronounced Ruta.

David Shapiro
Jerusalem

In several Slavic languages, like Czech, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, "ruda" means "ore."

I don't know if that has any connection to your relatives' names, but it might have depending on where they lived.

Otherwise, it can also be a nickname for Rudolf.

Rick Pinard
Prague

We have a number of family members with the name Ruda or Rudah. In fact my father had an auntie who married a man whose last name was Ruda.
Is this a Yiddish form of Ruth? 
Thank you Chaim Meiersdorf