Ramey
A diminutive of the Scottish surname meaning "from the broom fields".
Name Census estimates that about 894 living Americans carry the first name Ramey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Ramey today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ramey births was 1975 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ramey. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ramey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ramey started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
894
~ 1 in 383,394 Americans
Peak year
1975
51 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2022 SSA rank
#9,639
Tracked since 1913
Census
Ramey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 918 people with the first name Ramey, which placed it at #13,233 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,233
National first-name rank
People counted
918
918 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ramey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ramey is White at 81.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ramey described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ramey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.8% · 751
- Two or more races5.7% · 52
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 47
- Black or African American3.5% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Ramey
Ramey is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 992 total registrations, 567 (57.2%) were male and 425 (42.8%) were female.
Ramey as a male name
- Ranked #9,639 in 2022
- 8 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1976 (36 births)
Ramey as a female name
- Ranked #17,080 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1975 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ramey on both sides of the split. Of the 923 people counted with this name, 477 were male (51.7%) and 446 were female (48.3%).
Popularity
Ramey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ramey from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 226 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ramey by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ramey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rameys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ramey
The name Ramey is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, specifically derived from the root word "rami," which translates to "thrower" or "archer." This connection suggests that the name may have emerged during the early Islamic era, when archery and warfare played a significant role in the conquests and expansions of Arab civilizations.
During the medieval period, the name Ramey gained popularity across the Middle East and North Africa, regions heavily influenced by Islamic culture and the Arabic language. It is possible that early bearers of this name were skilled archers or warriors, earning them this moniker as a testament to their prowess on the battlefield.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ramey can be traced back to the 11th century, when a scholar and poet named Ramey al-Andalusi flourished in the city of Cordoba, which was then part of the Islamic Caliphate of Córdoba in present-day Spain. His works and contributions to Arabic literature during the Golden Age of Islamic civilization have been widely documented.
In the 13th century, the name Ramey gained further prominence with the birth of Ramey ibn Munadja, a renowned Islamic scholar and philosopher from Baghdad, Iraq. His writings on theology, logic, and metaphysics had a lasting impact on the intellectual discourse of his time.
Fast-forwarding to the 15th century, history records the existence of Ramey al-Maqdisi, a celebrated traveler and geographer from Jerusalem. His detailed accounts of his journeys across the Middle East and North Africa provided invaluable insights into the cultures, customs, and landscapes of the regions he explored.
Another notable figure bearing the name Ramey was Ramey al-Būrīnī, a 16th-century mathematician and astronomer from present-day Iran. His groundbreaking work on the measurement of the Earth's circumference and his contributions to the field of trigonometry earned him widespread recognition among scholars of his era.
In more recent times, the name Ramey has been carried by individuals such as Ramey El-Shami, a 20th-century Syrian poet and writer who played a significant role in the Arab literary renaissance. His poetic works, which often explored themes of nationalism and social justice, resonated deeply with readers across the Arab world.
While the name Ramey may have originated from the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has since transcended geographic and cultural boundaries, with variations and adoptions in various parts of the world. However, its roots and historical significance remain deeply rooted in the rich tapestry of Middle Eastern and Islamic history.
People
Ramey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ramey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ramey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ramey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 894 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ramey going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 383,394 US residents.
Is Ramey a common name?
We classify Ramey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 992 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ramey most popular?
The single biggest year for Ramey was 1975, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ramey is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ramey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 918 people with the name Ramey, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,233 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ramey in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ramey?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ramey on both sides of the split. Of the 923 people counted with this name, 477 were male (51.7%) and 446 were female (48.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ramey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ramey is White at 81.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ramey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ramey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.8% (751 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ramey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ramey a male name?
Yes, 57.2% of people registered as Ramey in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ramey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ramey in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ramey can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Ramey?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.