Explore the Family Name Ryerson

The meaning of Ryerson

1. Americanized form of Dutch Reijersen: patronymic from the personal name Reijer, from ancient Germanic Reginher, a compound of ragin ‘counsel’ + heri ‘army’. 2. Americanized form of Norwegian Reiersen. History: Marten Reijersen (also Ryerson), a son of Reijer Reijersz, was recorded in 1646 in New Netherland.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Ryerson ranked 12,487th in popularity in the United States in 2000 and fell slightly to the 12,795th position by 2010. This represents a decrease of approximately 2.47%. However, the total count of individuals with the Ryerson surname increased by 5.75% over the same period, growing from 2,279 people in 2000 to 2,410 in 2010. The proportion per 100,000 people with this surname also dropped slightly by 2.38%, from 0.84 in 2000 to 0.82 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#12,487	#12,795	-2.47%
Count	2,279	2,410	5.75%
Proportion per 100k	0.84	0.82	-2.38%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ryerson

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Ryerson also showed notable changes between 2000 and 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. The percentage of Asians/Pacific Islanders with this surname rose by 31.58% during this time frame. Additionally, there was an increase in Ryersons identifying as having two or more races, moving up by 52.63%. Individuals identifying as White with the surname decreased slightly by 1.18%, while those identifying as Hispanic saw a slight increase of 3.89%. Black individuals with the Ryerson surname increased by 36.07%, and American Indian and Alaskan Natives by 26.92%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.61%	94.48%	-1.18%
Hispanic	1.8%	1.87%	3.89%
Two or More Races	1.14%	1.74%	52.63%
Black	0.61%	0.83%	36.07%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.57%	0.75%	31.58%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.26%	0.33%	26.92%