How common is the surname Ratcliffe?

4,327 people in the United States had the surname Ratcliffe in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 71,353 Americans. It ranked 7,674th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Ratcliffe?

Peter J. Ratcliffe, British biologist & Nobel laureate in medicine, followed by John Ratcliffe.

Where is the surname Ratcliffe most common?

Wikidata records people named Ratcliffe in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Is the surname Ratcliffe getting more or less common?

More common. 4,148 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,327 in 2010, up 4.3%.

The surname Ratcliffe

A surname, carried by 4,327 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex R324

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Ratcliffe is more common than 95.3% of them.

Origin

A surname.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 4,327 people named Ratcliffe in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 71,353 Americans. That is up 4.3% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,148.

#7,674

rank among US surnames

4,327

people in 2010

1.5

per 100,000 Americans

+4.3%

change since 2000 (was #7,411)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#7,668	Seibel	4,331	71,287
#7,671	Whitted	4,330	71,304
#7,673	Kellner	4,329	71,320
#7,674	Ratcliffe	4,327	71,353
#7,676	Flake	4,326	71,370

Who is named Ratcliffe

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

85% of people named Ratcliffe identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.6% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.1% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 85%
Black (not Hispanic) 8.6%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.1%
Two or more races 1.6%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Ratcliffes

3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Peter J. Ratcliffe
British biologist & Nobel laureate in medicine, born 1954
John Ratcliffe
American lawyer and politician (born 1965)
Jim Ratcliffe
British chemical engineer turned financier and industrialist, born 1952

Notable Ratcliffes come mostly from the United Kingdom (2) and the United States (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe has the Soundex code R324, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R324.

Questions

How common is the surname Ratcliffe?: 4,327 people in the United States had the surname Ratcliffe in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 71,353 Americans. It ranked 7,674th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Ratcliffe?: In the 2010 Census, 85% of people named Ratcliffe identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.6% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Ratcliffe?: Peter J. Ratcliffe, British biologist & Nobel laureate in medicine, followed by John Ratcliffe.
Where is the surname Ratcliffe most common?: Wikidata records people named Ratcliffe in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Is the surname Ratcliffe getting more or less common?: More common. 4,148 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,327 in 2010, up 4.3%.