 The village's name, Rutsweiler, has the common German placename ending "—weiler", which as a standalone word means “hamlet” (originally “homestead”), to which is prefixed a syllable "Ruts—", believed to have arisen from a personal name, "Rud", "Ruod" or "Ruodzo", suggesting that the village arose from a homestead founded by an early settler named Ruod, thus “Ruod’s Homestead”.Other names that the village has borne over time are "Rußwilre" (1303), "Rutzweiler" (1335) and "Ruzweiler" (1788).In Goswin Widder's time, in 1788, the site of the "Zweikirche" (church) was still being described as a village in its own right, and next to the church stood other buildings.