Ripley
Ripley is given to both girls and boys: 243 girls and 156 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,032 among girls’ names and #1,266 among boys’, #1,378 among all names counting both); 3,590 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,530 Americans named Ripley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ripley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ripley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ripley is “a female given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “woodland clearing” (lēah).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From the Old English folk name for the Anglian tribe, *Hrype + Old English lēah (“woodland clearing”).
/ˈɹɪpli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ripley?
#1,032 among girls’ names, 2025
Ripley rose from #2,038 in 2015 to #1,032 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.05 to 0.15 per 1,000.
399 babies in 2025, the peak
Ripley peaked in 2025, when 399 babies were given it (243 girls, #1,032 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 187 girls.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 243 | #1,032 | 156 | #1,266 |
| 2024 | 187 | #1,249 | 135 | #1,394 |
| 2023 | 203 | #1,184 | 118 | #1,506 |
| 2022 | 207 | #1,171 | 108 | #1,621 |
| 2021 | 171 | #1,320 | 76 | #1,979 |
| 2020 | 171 | #1,297 | 66 | #2,133 |
| 2019 | 172 | #1,331 | 41 | #2,981 |
| 2018 | 192 | #1,222 | 22 | #4,575 |
| 2017 | 143 | #1,540 | 26 | #4,078 |
| 2016 | 128 | #1,681 | 26 | #4,070 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 97 | #2,038 | 30 | #3,666 |
| 2014 | 76 | #2,408 | 22 | #4,501 |
| 2013 | 65 | #2,701 | 16 | #5,591 |
| 2012 | 56 | #3,036 | 11 | #7,435 |
| 2011 | 31 | #4,656 | 9 | #8,620 |
| 2010 | 39 | #3,942 | 8 | #9,484 |
| 2009 | 44 | #3,666 | 13 | #6,730 |
| 2008 | 32 | #4,736 | 11 | #7,593 |
| 2007 | 31 | #4,781 | 10 | #8,044 |
| 2006 | 28 | #5,067 | 10 | #7,873 |
| 2005 | 27 | #4,932 | 15 | #5,515 |
| 2004 | 37 | #3,880 | 14 | #5,729 |
| 2003 | 22 | #5,554 | 8 | #8,452 |
| 2002 | 20 | #5,845 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | 15 | #7,237 | 6 | #10,276 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,415 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | 16 | #6,417 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 20 | #5,304 | under 5 | |
| 1997 | 11 | #8,199 | under 5 | |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,306 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | 5 | #15,202 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,487 | under 5 | |
| 1993 | 7 | #11,486 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,944 | 5 | #9,506 |
| 1991 | under 5 | 6 | #8,024 | |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,969 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 11 | #7,001 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | under 5 | 7 | #5,455 | |
| 1958 | under 5 | 8 | #3,223 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 8 | #3,201 | |
| 1955 | under 5 | 6 | #3,808 | |
| 1952 | under 5 | 5 | #4,158 | |
| 1950 | under 5 | 6 | #3,614 | |
| 1943 | under 5 | 5 | #3,944 | |
| 1926 | under 5 | 5 | #4,710 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 6 | #4,255 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,839 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 6 | #4,082 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Ripley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,590 Americans recorded as Ripley, 71% are girls and 29% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ripley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ripley, and how old are they?
3,530 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 3,590 Americans ever recorded as Ripley. The median Ripley alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 1,775 people named Ripley (1,345 women and girls, 430 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,764 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 22 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 70 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 555 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,880 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ripley born?
The states with the most babies named Ripley are California, Ohio and Texas, with 32% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 40 | #935 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 25 | #862 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 21 | #1,256 | 0.5× |
| Washington | 20 | #535 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 18 | #1,161 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 16 | #1,251 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 16 | #845 | 0.3× |
| Colorado | 12 | #774 | 0.7× |
| Oregon | 11 | #348 | 1.4× |
| New York | 11 | #2,360 | 0.3× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ripley with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 3,692 babies since 1880, Ripley is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 399 of their 421 babies (95%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ripley
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ripley and names like it
- Compare Ripley and RipleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRipley peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ripley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Ripley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Ripley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ripley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.