Reynard
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from OFr Reinart, Renart; also from OG Raginhard, Rainard ‘counsel-brave’; first attested Rogerus filius Rainardi 1086 DB (Norfolk)
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Reynard is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 104K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 317K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 21K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 215 (measured from records)
- 1 in 21K (inferred from the name graph)
≈7,900 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- OFrReinart(measured from records)
- OGRaginhard(measured from records)
from OFr Reinart, Renart; also from OG Raginhard, Rainard ‘counsel-brave’; first attested Rogerus filius Rainardi 1086 DB (Norfolk)
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Reynard counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈7,900 est. | ≈1 in 176K | — | Reynard | 3 |
| FR France | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 42K | 232 | — | 3 |
| US United States | 1,050 | 1 in 317K | 1.1K | Reynard | 215 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈630 est. | ≈1 in 104K | 842 | Reynard | 110 |
| CH Switzerland | 405 | 1 in 21K | 405 | Reynard | 28 |
| CA Canada | ≈200 est. | ≈1 in 193K | — | Reynard | 50 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
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 nameBaby 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 nameA 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 nameA 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 nameThe 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 namePronouncing 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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- André Reynardb. 1799FRFrench politician (1799-1861)
- Francisque Reynardb. 1835FRtranslator
- Helene Reynardb. 1875GBUK economist and college administrator (1875-1947)
- Grant T. Reynardb. 1887USAmerican painter (1887-1968)
- Paul Reynardb. 1927FRpainter, art teacher, co-president of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York (1927-2005)
- Jean-Michel Reynardb. 1950FRFrench poet (1950–2003)
- Adrian Reynardb. 1951GBBritish businessman
- Melissa Reynardb. 1972GBcricketer (born 1972)
- Mathias Reynardb. 1987CHSwiss politician
- Paulin Reynardb. 1990FRleader of Felibritge since 2022
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 32 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.1K | #24,012 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1K | #23,087 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1K | #25,728 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 842 | #7,567 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 405 | #3,257 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 272 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 262 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 259 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 257 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 249 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 232 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 215 | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- 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.
- In which country does Reynard have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 7.9 thousand people named Reynard in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled reynard.
- 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 China 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.
What do you want to know about Reynard?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/reynardThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Reynard”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.