Ridley

Where Ridley comes from

Place names in England, Old English hrēad (“reeds”) or rydde (“cleared land”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Thus, equivalent to reed or rid + -ley (“lea”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Ridley
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1915
    First appearance
    #2,829 among boys, 8 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 2014
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 2018
    Peak, #1,733
    89 babies named Ridley — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.
Namesakes

We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Ridley hasn't yet.

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.