Reynard

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Reynard 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, Teutonic; brave or fox; wise, powerful ruler.

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

• g From an Old French name of Germanic (Frankish) origin, derived from ragin ‘advice’, ‘decision’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. In French, renard has become the generic term for a fox, as a result of the popularity of medieval beast tales featuring Re(y)nard le goupil ‘Reynard the Fox’. The name was adopted by the Normans and introduced by them to Britain.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, composed of the elements ragin counsel 4- hard hardy, brave, strong, which was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Re(i)nard. This was the name borne by the cunning fox in the popular medieval cycle of beasttales, with the result that from the 13th cent, it began to replace the previous OF word for the animal (see Goupil).

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• In English, composed of the elements ragin counsel + hard hardy, brave, strong, which was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Re(i)nard. This was the name borne by the cunning fox in the popular medieval cycle of beasttales, with the result that from the 13th cent, it began to replace the previous OF word for the animal (see Goupil).

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

• In English, fox in medieval stories

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

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.

• Paul Reynardb. 1927FRpainter, art teacher, co-president of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York (1927-2005)
• Adrian Reynardb. 1951GBBritish businessman
• Mathias Reynardb. 1987CHSwiss politician

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).

32 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 20 countries.

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

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

from OFr Reinart, Renart; also from OG Raginhard, Rainard ‘counsel-brave’; first attested Rogerus filius Rainardi 1086 DB (Norfolk) Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.

What are other forms of the name Reynard?

In the etymology graph, Reinhardt, Renard and Reinhart are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Reynard?

In English /ˈɹɛnɑː(ɹ)d/ (Wiktionary).

Which countries have the most people with the surname Reynard?

Mondonomo estimates about 1.8 thousand people named Reynard in France, more than in any other country we hold. After it come United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and South Africa; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Reynard most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Reynard is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 21 thousand people — even though France holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Reynard?

In the United States, the national register counted 1,050 people named Reynard in 2010, about 1 in 317 thousand residents.