AbeBooks.com. Thousands of booksellers - millions of books.

There are approximately 43,148 people named Reed in the UK. That makes it the 197th most common surname overall. Out of every million people in the UK, approximately 683 are named Reed.

Region of origin

British Isles

Country of origin

England

Language of origin

English

Religion of origin

Christian

Classification

English
Location or Geographical Feature

Related and similar surnames

Read
Reid
Reade
Reader
Red
Reda
Rad
Rade
Raid
Reado
Raad
Radd
Ready
Radde
Raed
Redde
Raede
Readd
Readde
Raeds
Reads
Readz
Redded
Readed
Readu
Reaede
Raeda
Redae
Redai
Redda
Rayd
Reada
Raghed
Reddes

The Reed surname in historical dictionaries

Patronymica Britannica (1860)

REED. 1. Red— allusive to complexion or dress, probably the former. This is a common medieval spelling. " What betokeneth it whan the sonne gothe downe reed?"'' Palsgrave. Maundevile says of the Red Sea : " that see is not more reed than another see." 2. Reed, a parish in Hertfordsliire ; Reede, another in Suffolk. The Reeds of Cragg, co. Northumberland, probably took their name from Redesdale, in which they have been immemorially located, or rather from the river which gives name to that dale. On a mural monument in Elsdon church, erected in the year 1758, to the memory of Elrington Reed, the family are stated to have been resident in Redesdale for more than nine hundred years. This Sir Walter Scott calls an " incredible space " of time, and so it is ; though the high antiquity of the family is unquestionable. See notes to Rokeby.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Your comments on the Reed surname

comments powered by Disqus