The RAMSEY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	76,625	373	0.028	284
United States (1880 census)	16,202	349	0.032	324
Change since 1880	+60423	-24	-0.004	-40
Other Countries
Australia	979	1684	0.006	60
United Kingdom	5,133	1228	0.011	112

Top States for RAMSEY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	6,213	401	0.030	298
Tennessee	4,658	159	0.082	819
Ohio	4,639	242	0.041	409
California	4,426	741	0.013	131
North Carolina	4,356	232	0.054	541
Top States for RAMSEY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Tennessee	4,658	159	0.082	819
West Virginia	1,421	150	0.079	786
Arkansas	1,691	194	0.063	633
Oklahoma	2,138	188	0.062	620
South Carolina	2,445	230	0.061	609

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called RAMSEY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called RAMSEY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called RAMSEY in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a RAMSEY by picking someone at random in Tennessee than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of RAMSEY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the RAMSEY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the RAMSEY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of RAMSEY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Native American/Alaskan	513	0.67
Asian/Pacific	261	0.34
White (Caucasian)	60,948	79.54
Black/African American	12,360	16.13
Mixed Race	1,257	1.64
White (Hispanic)	1,287	1.68

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the RAMSEY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of RAMSEY in historical publications

(origin: Local) From Ea, Saxon, water, or an isle, and Ram, Ram's Isle, a place in Huntingdonshire, England; where the family originated, and afterward settled in Scotland. Ramus, Latin, branches, young trees--the isle of underbrush, branches, or young trees; a place where cattle browse. Reomasey, Saxon, from Reoma, the rim, edge, extremity, a border, and ey, an island.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

RAMSEY. Parishes in Huntingdonshire

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to RAMSEY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as RAMSEY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.