Reid

Locally spelled Reed in US United States, GB United Kingdom, IE Ireland and 1 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

• English:/ɹiːd/●(recorded in a dictionary) from Wiktionary

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Reid, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Grant
• Graham
• Hayes
• Miles
• Nolan

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Reid is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Reíd

83 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Reid is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, Descriptive surname from Old English/Scots ‘red’ (pronounced reed); early form Gilbert le Rede of Coul, 1296. Also Scotticised Gaelic ruadh ‘red’.

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• Transferred use of Scottish and Northern English surname, in origin as a nickname for someone with red hair ora ruddy complexion (from Old English réad ‘red’, cf. Read).

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, Kate, British actress

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, red-haired

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• Scottish and N. English: transferred use of the surname, which originated as a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion (from Old English r ad red; cf. READ ).

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• George Reidb. 1845GBAustralian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Australia and 12th Premier of New South Wales (1845-1918)
• Harry Reidb. 1939USAmerican politician (1939–2021)
• Tara Reidb. 1975USAmerican actress (born 1975)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

80 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 43 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Reid mean, and where does it come from?

(i) medieval nickname for a red-haired or ruddy-faced person, from Middle English read ‘red’; (ii) ‘person who lives in a woodland clearing’; (iii) ‘person from Read’, Lancashire, ‘headland frequented… Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

How do you pronounce Reid?

In English /ɹiːd/ (Wiktionary).

Which countries have the most people with the surname Reid?

In the United States, the national register counted about 277 thousand people named Reed, more than in any other country we hold. After it come United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Philippines; the country table on this page ranks them.

How common is the name Reid?

In Brazil, the national register counted 1,357 people named Reid, about 1 in 156 thousand residents.

How common is Reid compared with other names?

In the United States, Reid is the 36th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.