Ripley
A habitational surname from one of several English places called Ripley, especially in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Surrey.
The #3,799 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,149 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ripley is an English habitational surname, taken from places called Ripley. The place-name is generally explained as meaning either "Rip(p)a's lea" or, in some older analyses, as "the lea of Hrypa/Hreopa," built from an Old English personal name plus "lēah" meaning a clearing, meadow, or woodland clearing. Older writers also proposed other nearby Old English personal-name forms, but the core idea is the same: a settlement named after a person and a clearing.
History
The name is found in several English counties, especially Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Surrey, and was adopted by families who moved away from those places. The Yorkshire Ripley forms are prominent in the historical record, and the surname appears in medieval and post-medieval records tied to local gentry and landholding families. As with many English locational surnames, it spread beyond its original district through migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One historical analysis links the Yorkshire place-name to an Old English personal name plus lēah, the same place-name element found in many English surnames like Stanley and Bradley.
From the historical record
“form of bard, a poet + the dim. suff. -a«] RIPLEY (Eng.) Bel. to Ripley (Yorks: Domes- day Ripeleia, Ripeleie, 14th cent. Riplay-; Derby, Surrey, etc.) = i Hrypa's or Hreopa's Lea [A.-Sax. *Hrypan- or *Hriopan-ledh — Hr^pam, Hriopan-, genit. of Hr^pa, Hriopa ; poss. f. the pret., hrdop-, of hrSpan, to shout] 2…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)