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Surname Etymology and Meaning of READ

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Middle English re(a)d ‘red’.
2. topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, from an unattested Old English ried, r¯d ‘woodland clearing’.
3. habitational name from various places: Read in Lancashire, the name of which is a contracted form of Old English r?gheafod, from r?ge ‘female roe deer’, ‘she-goat’ + heafod ‘head(land)’; Rede in Suffolk, so called from Old English hreod ‘reeds’; or Reed in Hertfordshire, so called from an Old English ryhð ‘brushwood’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)