Ripley is an English surname and place name from Old English, meaning "strip-shaped clearing" or "clearing by the strip of land". As a first name for girls it owes almost everything to Ellen Ripley, the heroine played by Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films. In the United States Ripley has climbed slowly from number 2038 in 2015 to number 1032 in 2025, its best rank yet, and sits just outside the top 1000.