How common is the surname Risley?

4,040 people in the United States had the surname Risley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 76,422 Americans. It ranked 8,213th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Risley?

In the 2010 Census, 93% of people named Risley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Is the surname Risley getting more or less common?

Less common. 4,048 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,040 in 2010, down 0.2%.

The surname Risley

An English place surname, carried by 4,040 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex R240

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

Origin

English origin

From Old English hrīs (“twig, branch; brushwood”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”); equivalent to rice + -ley (“lea”). The circus term comes from the name of Richard Risley Carlisle (1814–1874), who developed this kind of act in the United States.

Risley 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 4,040 people named Risley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 76,422 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 4,048.

#8,213

rank among US surnames

4,040

people in 2010

1.4

per 100,000 Americans

-0.2%

change since 2000 (was #7,574)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#8,206	Matamoros	4,044	76,347
#8,209	Asuncion	4,042	76,384
#8,212	Delisle	4,041	76,403
#8,213	Hartsell	4,040	76,422
#8,216	Ji	4,039	76,441
#8,217	Sheth	4,038	76,460

Who is named Risley

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

93% of people named Risley identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.6% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 93%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.7%
Two or more races 1.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.3%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.5%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Wrisley

Surnames that sound like Risley

Risley has the Soundex code R240, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R240.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Risley come from?: From Old English hrīs (“twig, branch; brushwood”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”); equivalent to rice + -ley (“lea”). The circus term comes from the name of Richard Risley Carlisle (1814–1874), who developed this kind of act in the United States.
How common is the surname Risley?: 4,040 people in the United States had the surname Risley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 76,422 Americans. It ranked 8,213th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Risley?: In the 2010 Census, 93% of people named Risley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
What type of surname is Risley?: Risley is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Risley getting more or less common?: Less common. 4,048 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,040 in 2010, down 0.2%.
What are other spellings of Risley?: Wrisley.