The RALEIGH surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	3,831	7999	0.001	14
United States (1880 census)	504	9619	0.001	10
Change since 1880	+3327	+1620	0	+4
Other Countries
Australia	186	8044	0.001	11
United Kingdom	122	21863	0	3

Top States for RALEIGH by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Kentucky	369	1608	0.009	91
Ohio	290	5004	0.003	26
California	268	10146	0.001	8
Michigan	260	4844	0.003	26
New York	198	10123	0.001	10
Top States for RALEIGH by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Kentucky	369	1608	0.009	91
Rhode Island	54	3094	0.005	52
Vermont	22	4526	0.004	36
Utah	70	3955	0.003	31
Wisconsin	142	6091	0.003	26

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

Classification and Origin of RALEIGH

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the RALEIGH 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 RALEIGH 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 RALEIGH in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	250	6.53
Mixed Race	62	1.62
White (Hispanic)	44	1.15
Native American/Alaskan	19	0.5
Asian/Pacific	12	0.31
White (Caucasian)	3,444	89.9

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

Meaning of RALEIGH in historical publications

Rhawlaw, in the Welsh, signifies a lieutenant, a vicar; and Rheoli, to govern, to rule. It may be local, from Ral, Raoul or Ralph, and leigh, or ley, a field or place.

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

RALEIGH. An ancient Devonshire family, who, according to Fuller, derived their name from "a well-known town" in that county. I cannot discover any town, or even village, so called, though the name is indissolubly connected with the shire, in the persons of the two famous Raleighs ■ — -William, Bishop of Winchester, temp. Henry III., and the renowned, but unfortunate, Sir Walter, who were both born ■within its limits. In the Rotuli Hundredorum for the county of Somerset, there is a Warinus de Raleghe.

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 RALEIGH

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as RALEIGH.

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.