Ripley

Ripley: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“strip of clearing in the woods”
Origin
Old English
Say it
RIP-lee · 2 syllables
Used for
Both (73% girls, 27% boys since 1880)

Ripley comes from an English surname and place name, from Old English elements likely meaning a woodland clearing or strip of land. It is used as a given name through surname-style transfer.

How popular is Ripley?

202496.0 per million US babies
1880192019602000
Drag the line or the slider to read any year. Values are per million US births recorded by Social Security. Records before about 1937 undercount births, so early peaks can look taller than they were.

Babies named Ripley in 2024320

2024 rank#1,246 girls

Peak year2023

Total US babies since 18803,187

Ripley is rising: use over the last five years is 4.7× what it was a decade earlier.

Names like Ripley

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

  • Oakleyoak clearing · Old English
  • PeytonPæga's town · Old English
  • Suttonsouth settlement · Old English
  • Harleyhare meadow · Old English
  • Leightonsettlement by a meadow · Old English
  • Kingsleyking's meadow · Old English
  • Berkleybirch wood clearing · Old English
  • Marlowdriftwood hill · Old English

Ripley questions

What does the name Ripley mean?

Ripley means "strip of clearing in the woods". It comes from Old English. Ripley comes from an English surname and place name, from Old English elements likely meaning a woodland clearing or strip of land. It is used as a given name through surname-style transfer.

Is Ripley a boy or girl name?

Ripley is used for both: about 73% of US babies named Ripley since 1880 were girls.

How popular is Ripley?

320 US babies were named Ripley in 2024. Its peak year was 2023.

How do you pronounce Ripley?

Ripley is usually pronounced RIP-lee.

Birth counts: US Social Security Administration national data, 1880–2024 (names given to 5+ babies of a sex in a year). How we write meanings.