# Ransom (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/ransom/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 16,871 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,150 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 18,300 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.1% (15,754 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɹænsəm/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Ransom in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 53% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 38% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2.3% |
| Two or more races | 3.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Ransom in the United States.

## People named Ransom

- John Crowe Ransom, American poet (1888–1974)
- Caroline L. Ransom, American egyptologist and classical archaeologist

## Similar surnames

Ransome, Ranson, Rankin, Rincon, Rankins, Renken, Ramachandran, Reinking, Ramaswamy, Ramasamy, Ranjan.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.