Ramsay
An Old English masculine name derived from "ram", meaning "wild garlic".
Name Census estimates that about 418 living Americans carry the first name Ramsay. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Ramsay today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ramsay births was 2017 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ramsay. 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.
People living today
418
~ 1 in 819,986 Americans
Peak year
2017
25 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,977
Tracked since 1922
Gender
Gender distribution for Ramsay
Ramsay leans heavily male at 84.5% of total registrations, but 70 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ramsay as a male name
- Ranked #11,977 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (16 births)
Ramsay as a female name
- Ranked #14,764 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2017 (9 births)
Popularity
Ramsay: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ramsay from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 122 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ramsay remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ramsay 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 Ramsay during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ramsays live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ramsay
The name Ramsay has its origins in the Old English language and is derived from the words "ram" and "ey", meaning "ram's island" or "ram's meadow". It is believed to have first emerged as a surname in the 11th century in northern England and southern Scotland.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ramsay can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of much of England and Wales commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name appeared as a place name, referring to various locations in northern England.
In the 12th century, the name Ramsay became associated with a noble Scottish family who traced their ancestry back to a knight named Simundus de Ramsay. This family played a significant role in Scottish history, with members serving as advisors and military leaders to several Scottish kings.
The first notable person to bear the name Ramsay was Sir Alexander Ramsay (c. 1275-1342), a Scottish nobleman and military commander who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English. He was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and was later appointed as the Guardian of Scotland during the minority of King David II.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), a Scottish poet and writer who was a leading figure in the 18th-century literary revival in Scotland. He is best known for his pastoral comedy "The Gentle Shepherd" and his collection of Scottish proverbs titled "A Collection of Scots Proverbs".
In the 19th century, Sir William Ramsay (1852-1916) was a Scottish chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 for his discovery of the noble gases. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential chemists of his time and made significant contributions to the understanding of the periodic table and the nature of atoms.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1924 to 1935. He was the first Labour Party leader to become Prime Minister and played a pivotal role in shaping the party's policies and ideology.
In more recent times, the name Ramsay has been associated with Gordon Ramsay (born 1966), the famous British chef and television personality known for his fiery temper and high standards in the kitchen. He has starred in numerous cooking shows and has written several books on cuisine and cooking techniques.
People
Ramsay + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ramsay 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
Ramsay: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ramsay?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 418 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ramsay 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 819,986 US residents.
Is Ramsay a common name?
We classify Ramsay as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 451 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ramsay most popular?
The single biggest year for Ramsay was 2017, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ramsay is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ramsay a male name?
Yes, 84.5% of people registered as Ramsay 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.
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.