How popular is the baby name Ridgely in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Ridgely.

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Popularity of the baby name Ridgely


Posts that mention the name Ridgely

Baby names with DG: Ledger, Bridger, Judge

hedgehog

Feeling nudged to choose a baby name that contains the letter-pair DG?

It’s an uncommon combination, but I’ve tracked down a few dozen options for you in this post!

Before we get to the names, though, let’s learn…

Where did -DGE come from in English?

French scribes, essentially.

In Old English, the “soft g” sound was rare, and it only occurred at the end of a word. When it did pop up, it was spelled with the digraph CG.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the ruling class of England spoke Anglo-Norman French. Over time, “the French-educated scribes [began] imposing traditional French spelling rules on English.”

The Normans had brought with them “soft g” words that utilized the letters G and I (which later evolved into J), but for native English words that contained the same sound, they decided to swap out CG for the trigraph DGE.

Some examples…

Old EnglishModern English
brycgbridge
ecgedge
hecghedge
hrycgridge
wecgwedge

Words derived from Anglo-Norman that happen to have the same ending include judge, pledge, and badge, and budge.

Now, on to the names!

Names with DG

Below are names that feature either DGE or the letter-pair DG (if it represents the same “soft G” sound). All of these names come from the SSA’s baby name data.

  • Adger
  • Adgie
  • Aldridge
  • Bridge
  • Bridger
  • Bridges
  • Bridget, Bridgett, Bridgette, Bridgete
  • Bridgetta
  • Bridgid
  • Bridgit, Bridgitt, Bridgitte
  • Cambridge
  • Coleridge
  • Condredge
  • Coolidge, Cooledge
  • Dandridge
  • Dodge
  • Dodger
  • Edge
  • Edgel
  • Edger
  • Edgerrin, Edgerin
  • Edwidge
  • Elbridge
  • Eldredge
  • Eldridge
  • Elridge
  • Etheridge
  • Ethridge
  • Gadge
  • Gidget, Gidgette
  • Hodge
  • Hodges
  • Judge
  • Knowledge
  • Ledgen
  • Ledgend
  • Ledger
  • Madge
  • Madgel
  • Madgie
  • Midge
  • Midgie
  • Milledge
  • Naledge
  • Padgett
  • Pledger
  • Redge
  • Redgie
  • Redginald
  • Ridge, Rydge
  • Ridger
  • Ridgely
  • Ridgeway
  • Ridgway
  • Rodger
  • Rodgerick
  • Rodgers
  • Rutledge
  • Sedgie
  • Sedgwick
  • Talmadge

Which DG name do you like most? Let me know in the comments!

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Igel by Mi chaela under CC BY 2.0.

Where did the baby name Ridgely come from in 1946?

Actor John Ridgely in the movie "The Big Sleep" (1946).
John Ridgely in “The Big Sleep

The baby name Ridgely crept into the U.S. baby name data for the first time in the mid-1940s:

  • 1948: 6 baby boys named Ridgely
  • 1947: 6 baby boys named Ridgely
  • 1946: 6 baby boys named Ridgely [debut]
  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted

I’m not 100% sure about the reason, but I think this is a good guess: actor John Ridgely (whose birth name was John Rea).

He played secondary characters in movies from the ’30s to the ’50s, but one of his most successful movies — and one in which he played a key character — was The Big Sleep (1946). It was a detective film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Ridgely played a gangster named Eddie Mars.

The same year, John Ridgely could also be seen as Cary, the husband of Ginna, in the movie My Reputation.

What are your thoughts on this theory?

Sources: The Big Sleep (1946) – TCM, SSA