# Ripley (surname)

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

A surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 9,314 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,799 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 33,149 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.7% (8,892 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɹɪpli/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From the Old English folk name for the Anglian tribe, *Hrype + Old English lēah (“woodland clearing”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Ripley 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) | 90% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.9% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.4% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

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

## People named Ripley

- Robert Ripley, American cartoonist (1890–1949)
- Alexandra Ripley, American writer (1934-2004)
- Sidney Dillon Ripley, American ornithologist and 8th Secretary of the Smithsonian (1913–2001)
- William Zebina Ripley, American academic (1867–1941)
- Stuart Ripley, association football player from England (born 1967)
- Alice Ripley, American actress, singer-songwriter
- George Ripley, American social reformer and Unitarian minister (1802–1880)
- Arthur Ripley, American screenwriter (1897–1961)
- Amanda Ripley, American journalist
- Steve Ripley, American recording artist, songwriter, studio engineer, guitarist, and inventor (1950–2019

## Similar surnames

Ripple, Rippel, Riffle, Ribble, Roybal, Ruble, Raphael, Rafael, Revell, Revilla, Rebello, Ruppel.

## 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.