Reed Family History

English and Scottish: nickname from Middle English and Older Scots red(e) ‘red’ no doubt denoting someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion. English: from Middle English ride rede rude (Old English rīed rēod rȳd) ‘clearing’. The surname may be topographic for someone who lived in or near a clearing or habitational for someone who lived at one of a number of places so named including Rede Court in Strood (Kent) Rides in Eastchurch (Kent) Ride Way in Ewhurst (Surrey) and Reed Farm in Wadhurst (Sussex).

The word is particularly common in the southeastern counties of England from Kent to the Isle of Wight. See also Rider and Reader.

English: habitational name from Read (Lancashire), Reed (Hertfordshire), or Rede (Suffolk). The Lancashire placename derives from Old English rǣge ‘roe, female roe deer’ + hēafod ‘head’.

The Hertfordshire placename derives from Old English rȳhth ‘rough piece of ground’. The etymology of the Suffolk placename is uncertain.