Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Ralston

    An English place surname, carried by 12,302 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex R423

    Ralston: #2,914 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Ralston #2,914, 12,302 people Ralston: #2,914 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Ralston #2,914, 12,302 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Ralston is more common than 98.2% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    From the Old English personal name Rǣdwulf (“Ralph”) + -s- + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

    Ralston 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 12,302 people named Ralston in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 25,097 Americans. That is up 1.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 12,076.

    #2,914
    rank among US surnames
    12,302
    people in 2010
    4.2
    per 100,000 Americans
    +1.9%
    change since 2000 (was #2,743)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #2,905Casper12,35124,998
    #2,906Cintron12,34925,002
    #2,907Overstreet12,34225,016
    #2,908Borges12,33725,026
    #2,909Concepcion12,33225,036
    #2,910Lemons12,32225,056
    #2,911Matson12,32025,061

    Who is named Ralston

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

    91% of people named Ralston identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.6% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 91%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 3.6%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
    • Two or more races 1.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Ralstons

    4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Esther Ralston
      American actress (1902–1994)
    • Jobyna Ralston
      American actress (1899-1967)
    • Steve Ralston
      American soccer player, born 1974
    • Samuel M. Ralston
      American politician (1857–1925)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Ralston

    Ralston has the Soundex code R423, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R423.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Ralston come from?
    From the Old English personal name Rǣdwulf (“Ralph”) + -s- + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).
    How common is the surname Ralston?
    12,302 people in the United States had the surname Ralston in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 25,097 Americans. It ranked 2,914th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Ralston?
    In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named Ralston identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.6% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Ralston?
    Esther Ralston, American actress (1902–1994), followed by Jobyna Ralston.
    Where is the surname Ralston most common?
    Wikidata records people named Ralston in the United States.
    What type of surname is Ralston?
    Ralston is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Ralston getting more or less common?
    More common. 12,076 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 12,302 in 2010, up 1.9%.