Rider Family History

English: occupational name from Middle English ridere ‘horseman’ perhaps with a specific application such as ‘forest ranger’ ‘horseman who guards crops’ or ‘mounted warrior knight’. Compare Knight.

English: habitational name from Ryther near Selby (Yorkshire) probably from Old English ryther ‘clearing’. English: topographic name from Middle English ridere ‘dweller at a clearing’ (see Reeder) or ‘dweller by a small stream’ depending on which sense of Middle English ride the surname is derived from.

These topographic senses of Rider are limited to the southern counties of England (especially Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire) where topographic names in -er and the Middle English words ride ‘clearing’ and rithe ‘small stream’ are mainly found. See also Reed.

Irish: adopted for Ó Marcaigh since the etymon marcach means ‘horseman or rider’. The Gaelic name is also Anglicized as Markey.

Americanized form of German Reiter.