How common is the surname Raleigh?

3,984 people in the United States had the surname Raleigh in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 77,496 Americans. It ranked 8,317th of 162,253 surnames.

How do you pronounce Raleigh?

Raleigh is /ˈɹɔːli/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Raleigh getting more or less common?

More common. 3,831 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,984 in 2010, up 4.0%.

Is Raleigh also a first name?

Yes. Raleigh is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Raleigh

An English place surname, carried by 3,984 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈɹɔːli/ 2 syllables Soundex R420 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Raleigh is more common than 94.9% of them.

Origin

English origin

From Old English rā, rāha (“roe deer”) + lēah (“woodland, clearing”). Equivalent to roe + -ley (“lea”).

Raleigh is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 3,984 people named Raleigh in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 77,496 Americans. That is up 4.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 3,831.

#8,317

rank among US surnames

3,984

people in 2010

1.4

per 100,000 Americans

+4%

change since 2000 (was #7,999)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#8,312	Steinbach	3,987	77,438
#8,313	Rideout	3,986	77,457
#8,316	Woodhouse	3,985	77,477
#8,317	Odle	3,984	77,496
#8,320	Michalak	3,983	77,516
#8,322	Kantor	3,982	77,535

Who is named Raleigh

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

89% of people named Raleigh identified as white (not Hispanic), 6.2% as Black (not Hispanic) and 1.9% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 89%
Black (not Hispanic) 6.2%
Two or more races 1.9%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Raleigh

Raleigh has the Soundex code R420, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R420.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Raleigh come from?: From Old English rā, rāha (“roe deer”) + lēah (“woodland, clearing”). Equivalent to roe + -ley (“lea”).
How common is the surname Raleigh?: 3,984 people in the United States had the surname Raleigh in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 77,496 Americans. It ranked 8,317th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Raleigh?: In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Raleigh identified as white (not Hispanic), and 6.2% as Black (not Hispanic).
How do you pronounce Raleigh?: Raleigh is /ˈɹɔːli/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Raleigh?: Raleigh is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Raleigh getting more or less common?: More common. 3,831 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,984 in 2010, up 4.0%.
Is Raleigh also a first name?: Yes. Raleigh is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.