How common is the surname Rye?

4,079 people in the United States had the surname Rye in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 75,691 Americans. It ranked 8,128th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Rye?

In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Rye identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Is the surname Rye getting more or less common?

Less common. 4,120 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,079 in 2010, down 1.0%.

Is Rye also a first name?

Yes. Rye is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Rye

A Norse place surname, carried by 4,079 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex R000 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Rye is more common than 95% of them.

Origin

Norse origin

* As an English surname, variant of Rea. * Also as an English surname, from the noun rye. * As a Norwegian surname, from several farmsteads whose name derive from Old Norse rjóðr (“forest clearing”); see the verb ryðja (“to clear”). * As a Danish surname, from the town Ry in Skanderbord. * The town in England is perhaps derived from Old English riþ (“river, stream”) whence also rith; compare ree.

Rye is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 126 Norse surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 4,079 people named Rye in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 75,691 Americans. That is down 1.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,120.

#8,128

rank among US surnames

4,079

people in 2010

1.4

per 100,000 Americans

-1%

change since 2000 (was #7,446)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#8,124	Brodsky	4,083	75,617
#8,126	Gamache	4,082	75,636
#8,127	Crew	4,081	75,654
#8,128	Anson	4,079	75,691
#8,130	Shuck	4,078	75,710

Who is named Rye

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

90% of people named Rye identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 2.6% as Black (not Hispanic).

White (not Hispanic) 90%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
Black (not Hispanic) 2.6%
Two or more races 1.7%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.1%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Reay

Surnames that sound like Rye

Rye has the Soundex code R000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R000.

Other Norse surnames

All 126 Norse surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Rye come from?: * As an English surname, variant of Rea. * Also as an English surname, from the noun rye. * As a Norwegian surname, from several farmsteads whose name derive from Old Norse rjóðr (“forest clearing”); see the verb ryðja (“to clear”). * As a Danish surname, from the town Ry in Skanderbord. * The…
How common is the surname Rye?: 4,079 people in the United States had the surname Rye in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 75,691 Americans. It ranked 8,128th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Rye?: In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Rye identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
What type of surname is Rye?: Rye is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Rye getting more or less common?: Less common. 4,120 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,079 in 2010, down 1.0%.
What are other spellings of Rye?: Reay.
Is Rye also a first name?: Yes. Rye is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.