she was born nancy ruth (rowell) jackman, and is the sister of former lieutenant governor of ontario hal jackman, the daughter of former member of parliament harry jackman and the granddaughter of former mp and ontario liberal party leader newton rowell. she changed her name in the mid-1990s; she does not use "ruth" as a last name, instead using both her names as given names with no last name, and therefore prefers to be known as "senator nancy ruth" instead of "senator ruth." she is alphabetized under "n," not "r", on the senate website.