USA

Although the US now has the largest population of Rampleys in the world, there were only two original Rampley immigrants to the country: James Rampley (born Finningham, Suffolk, England, 15 Jul 1744; went to the US about 1764) and William Rampley (born England, about 1750; went to the US about 1770).

The name Rampley is very uncommon in the US: according to the 1990 census, Rampley is the 54,757th most common surname in the United States (frequency – 0.000%; percentile – 86.656). Source: US Census Bureau. However, this is not entirely accurate since all names with less than 0.001% are “ranked” alphabetically. We can therefore only be certain that there were fewer than 0.0006%, or about 1500 Rampleys.

Geographically, Georgia has almost always had the greatest concentration of Rampleys. These three maps show the evolution over time of the name in the US.

In 1880 there were a total of 78 Rampleys (and other close spellings) living in 21 households. In 1999 there were 216 Rampley entries in the white pages. In 2003 there were 242 Rampleys and one Ramply. Based on that number, I make a very rough guess that there are about 900 Rampleys in the USA today.

See the home page for a graph of population growth in the US and the UK.

AUSTRALIA

To my knowledge there have only been three Rampley births in Australia. The only Rampley family I know in Australia originally moved there in about 1960 from England.

CANADA

I only know for sure of six Rampley births and seven Rampley burials in Canada, although I am certain that there are more. I’d love to hear from you!

The oldest trace I have of Rampleys in Canada was in the 1881 Canadian census; a couple living in “Hull, Ottawa, Quebec”. I presume that should be Hull, Ottawa, Ontario.

There was also a different family of five, spelt Ramply, living in Lindsay Township, Bruce County, Ontario.