The reis Surname
reis Name Meaning and History
- German: from Middle High German ris ‘undergrowth’, ‘brushwood’; a topographic name for someone who lived in an overgrown area, or a habitational name from Reis or Reissen in Bavaria, named with this word.
- German: occupational name for a cobbler, Middle High German riuze. Compare Reuss.
- German: variant of Reiss 2, or from the Huguenot name Ris.
- Altered spelling of German Ries.
- Portuguese and Galician: from a short form of dos Reis ‘(of) the (Three) Kings’, a personal name popularly bestowed on someone born on the feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. This is a frequent family name in southern Portugal.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a dealer in rice or an ornamental name from German Reis ‘rice’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Reis ‘twig’, ‘branch’.
- Turkish: from reis ‘boss’, ‘chief’, ‘head of a business enterprise’. A Greek derivative of this is also found as a surname, in the form Reizis.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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