Explore the Family Name Ridgely

The meaning of Ridgely

English (Berkshire and Buckinghamshire): variant of Ridgley. This surname is now rare in Britain.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Ridgely in the United States?

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Ridgely has seen a modest fluctuation in popularity. In 2000, the surname was ranked 23,986 in terms of prevalence and by 2010, it had shifted slightly to 24,339- a decrease of 1.47%. Despite this drop in rank, the actual count of individuals with the Ridgely surname increased from 982 in 2000 to 1,030 in 2010, indicating a growth rate of 4.89%. However, the proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 people decreased by 2.78% over the same time period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#23,986	#24,339	-1.47%
Count	982	1,030	4.89%
Proportion per 100k	0.36	0.35	-2.78%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ridgely

Ethnic identity associated with the Ridgely surname also saw some changes between 2000 and 2010 as per the Decennial U.S. Census data. The percentage of those identifying as White decreased by 1.3%, while those identifying as Black saw a more substantial decrease of 12.94%. There was a notable increase in the percentage identifying as two or more races (from 1.02% to 1.65%) as well as a slight increase for those identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native (from 1.53% to 1.65%). Interestingly, data for those recognizing themselves as Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic were suppressed in 2000, but in 2010 there were individuals who identified with these ethnicities at 0.49% and 1.75% respectively.

	2000	2010	Change
White	89.51%	88.35%	-1.3%
Black	7.03%	6.12%	-12.94%
Hispanic	0%	1.75%	0%
Two or More Races	1.02%	1.65%	61.76%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.53%	1.65%	7.84%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.49%	0%