My personal impression of the name: I love offbeat and uncommon names, but this is not something that personally strikes my fancy. I encountered this for the first time recently and mistakenly thought it was pronounced "Rid-gull-ly". I don't think this rolls off the tongue very well (the "DG" to "L" sound is tricky). I was glad to see that there was a poet with this name when I looked it up on here-- at least there is some precedent for its usage. In terms of it fitting-in in a modern classroom, I don't think there's too much difference between Ridgely and other favorites like Oakley, Everly, Blakely, or even "oldies" like Kimberly, Kelly, and Emily... but the glaringly obvious issue is that all of these other names are very feminine leaning and Ridgely seems to be a boy name. Maybe names like "Bridger" help bring this back to a masculine context?All in all, there are definitely worse names out there, and this isn't really that far out from what's currently trending. It's just hard for me to picture as a serious name choice.
I was glad to see that there was a poet with this name when I looked it up on here-- at least there is some precedent for its usage. In terms of it fitting-in in a modern classroom, I don't think there's too much difference between Ridgely and other favorites like Oakley, Everly, Blakely, or even "oldies" like Kimberly, Kelly, and Emily... but the glaringly obvious issue is that all of these other names are very feminine leaning and Ridgely seems to be a boy name. Maybe names like "Bridger" help bring this back to a masculine context?
All in all, there are definitely worse names out there, and this isn't really that far out from what's currently trending. It's just hard for me to picture as a serious name choice.