Recorded as Ramplay, Rampley, Ramplee and others, this is probably an English surname. However it is also possible that it is a transposition of a French or Continental name, and if so it may well have been Huguenot, although we have failed to establish any links. If English, it seems to be locational from a village called Rampley or very similar, except that no such place appears to be recorded in the gazetters of the British Isles for the past three centuries. This would suggest that either it is another example of the three thousand or so villages and even small towns that have disappeared since Tudor times, or the name has changed to something else, which has not been recognized. It would seem to mean "Garlick farm" from hramsa-leah, although "Rams farm" whilst possible is unlikely as most sheep farms had at least one ram! Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In this case the surname is well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London but only from the 18th century. These recordings include Mary Ramplee who married James Witwell at St Clements Danes on December 16th 1762, and Sophia Rampley christened at St Marys Lewisham, on June 14th 1803.

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