Ragsdale
A surname most likely from Ragdale in Leicestershire, meaning someone who came from that place.
The #2,932 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,251 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as a locational name from Ragdale, a parish in Leicestershire. In older surname practice, people were often identified by the place they came from, so the name would originally have meant "of Ragdale" or "from Ragdale." The place-name itself is old and may preserve an early English field-name element, but the surname’s core meaning is simply geographical.
History
The 19th-century surname scholar Lower explicitly linked Ragsdale to Ragdale in Leicestershire, and that remains the standard explanation. In later use the name spread well beyond England, especially in North America, where it is now more familiar than as a place-name surname in Britain. Spellings have been somewhat variable, with Ragsdale fixed as the common modern form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is quite rare in the U.S. relative to common English surnames, but it has still built up a sizable American presence through migration and later family expansion.
From the historical record
“RAGSDALE. Ragdale, a parish in Lei- cestershire. RAIKE. RAIKES. In Scotl. a rake, or ral7i% is the extent of a course, walk, or fish- ing ground, as sheep-raik, cattle-raik, kc. See Jamieson. RAILTON. Probably the same as Relton. RAIMENT. Doubtless a corruption of”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom