Ridley
A masculine name from an Old English surname meaning "woodland clearing".
Name Census estimates that about 2,600 living Americans carry the first name Ridley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 53.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Ridley today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ridley births was 2018 (213 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ridley. 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 Ridley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ridley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Ridley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 131,829 Americans
Peak year
2018
213 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,930
Tracked since 1915
Census
Ridley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,835 people with the first name Ridley, which placed it at #8,022 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
#8,022
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,835 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ridley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ridley is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.6%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Ridley 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 Ridley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.1% · 1,470
- Two or more races6.6% · 121
- Black or African American6.0% · 111
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 97
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Ridley
Ridley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,726 total registrations, 1,457 (53.4%) were male and 1,269 (46.6%) were female.
Ridley as a male name
- Ranked #2,248 in 2024
- 64 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (92 births)
Ridley as a female name
- Ranked #1,930 in 2024
- 103 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (124 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ridley on both sides of the split. Of the 1,840 people counted with this name, 1,079 were male (58.6%) and 761 were female (41.4%).
Popularity
Ridley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ridley from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,293 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ridley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ridley 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 Ridley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ridleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Ridley, while Utah, New York, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ridley
The name Ridley has its origins in Old English, derived from the words "rycg" meaning "ridge" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing". It is believed to have been originally a place name, referring to a meadow located on a ridge. The earliest recorded use of the name can be traced back to the late 11th century.
In terms of historical references, the name Ridley is mentioned in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of a great survey commissioned in 1085 by William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name was already in use in England during the Norman period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ridley as a personal name is Nicholas Ridley (c. 1500 - 1555), an English Protestant bishop who played a key role in the English Reformation and was martyred during the reign of Queen Mary I.
Another notable figure was Humphrey Ridley (c. 1653 - 1708), an English clergyman and author who wrote several works on theology and religious philosophy.
In the 18th century, James Ridley (1736 - 1765) was a British explorer and navigator who made several important voyages to the Pacific Ocean and is credited with being one of the first Europeans to visit Tahiti.
Moving into the 19th century, Matthew Ridley (1835 - 1888) was a prominent English industrialist and Member of Parliament who played a significant role in the development of the coal and iron industries in the northeast of England.
In the realm of literature, J. Whyborne Ridley (1864 - 1935) was an English author and poet who wrote several works of fiction and non-fiction, including biographies of notable figures such as William Shakespeare and John Milton.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Ridley, demonstrating its long-standing presence and use throughout various periods and contexts.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ridley
People
Ridley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ridley 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
Ridley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ridley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,600 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ridley 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 131,829 US residents.
Is Ridley a common name?
We classify Ridley as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,726 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ridley most popular?
The single biggest year for Ridley was 2018, when 213 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ridley is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ridley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,835 people with the name Ridley, or 0.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,022 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 Ridley 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 Ridley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ridley on both sides of the split. Of the 1,840 people counted with this name, 1,079 were male (58.6%) and 761 were female (41.4%). 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 Ridley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ridley is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.6%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Ridley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ridley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (1,470 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 Ridley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ridley a male name?
Yes, 53.4% of people registered as Ridley 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 Ridley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ridley 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 Ridley 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 Ridley?
Want to know how many people share the name Ridley? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.