Reid

surname · English · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Reid is a surname, most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is the 25th most common surname. It appears chiefly in English and Welsh, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: (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.

rarermore common
  • JMJamaica1 in 143◐
  • AUAustralia1 in 638
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 689

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈282K ●

across 9 countries

#278 ●

of 21M surnames

3 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
538 ●

4.8M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 1.0K ◐

Guyana

Spellings & scripts●

ReedLatin · English●2.9M records
ՌիդArmenian · Armenian●0 records
리드Hangul · Korean●0 records

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Reed in US United States, GB United Kingdom, CA Canada and 16 more and Read in IL Israel, ES Spain, NL Netherlands.

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

Meaning & origin●

(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 by female roe deer’

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Reid is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
GB United Kingdom#25337,686292K rec.—7Reed246
US United States#34277,0304M rec.1 in 1.2K277KReed538
AU Australia#25131,922130K rec.—4Reid238
CA Canada#23100,535102K rec.—17Reed229
JM Jamaica#833,57411K rec.——Reid59
IT Italy#4319,84622K rec.—2Reed48
DE Germany#62814,30515K rec.—1Reed107
RU Russia—9,61711K rec.——Reed31
IE Ireland#738,5998.7K rec.——Reed101
EG Egypt#3687,6838K rec.——Reed28
NZ New Zealand#457,57310K rec.—19Reid126
SG Singapore#796,0669K rec.——Reed34

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English1.4M82%
  • Welsh55K3%
  • Spanish52K3%
  • 43K3%
  • German13K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English1,404,01582%
Welsh54,7423%
Spanish52,3743%
43,4603%
German13,0421%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

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

  • a separate surname55K records spelled Reid2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

    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.

Other recorded senses●

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 nameScottish 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 nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, Kate, British actress

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • In English, red-haired

    as a nameBaby 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.

Over time●

05001K1.5K1900195020001.4K · 2014

Show as table
Reid in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1886–2025
Yearrecords
18866
18885
18907
18929
189414
189511
18967
18978
18988
19008
19018
19038
19048
19055
19067
19079
19089
19099
19106
19119
191228
191326
191434
191543
191638
191754
191853
191971
192078
192165
192285
192379
192488
192578
192664
192770
192873
192949
193058
193150
193256
193343
193451
193551
193651
193750
193849
193946
194064
194163
194272
194378
194467
194568
194693
1947120
1948110
1949151
1950142
1951159
1952203
1953192
1954179
1955189
1956192
1957189
1958169
1959157
1960132
1961144
1962129
1963152
1964144
1965119
1966123
1967135
1968118
1969159
1970207
1971158
1972155
1973124
1974164
1975165
1976151
1977136
1978192
1979185
1980212
1981244
1982259
1983290
1984288
1985298
1986291
1987330
1988335
1989308
1990339
1991367
1992482
1993439
1994530
1995614
1996508
1997486
1998548
1999513
2000545
2001537
2002551
2003550
2004589
2005627
2006683
2007679
2008865
2009903
20101,145
20111,123
20121,206
20131,373
20141,432
20151,339
20161,396
20171,246
20181,223
20191,180
20201,048
20211,109
20221,040
20231,060
20241,120
20251,150

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 134 years between 1886–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

180018501900195020002050George Reid, b. 1845Frances Reid, b. 1914Elliott Reid, b. 1920Harry Reid, b. 1939Kerry Reid, b. 1947Peter Reid, b. 1956Tara Reid, b. 1975Sam Reid, b. 1987Riley Reid, b. 1991Storm Reid, b. 2003
  • George Reidb. 1845GBAustralian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Australia and 12th Premier of New South Wales (1845-1918)
  • Frances Reidb. 1914USAmerican actress (1914-2010)
  • Elliott Reidb. 1920USAmerican film and television actor (1920-2013)
  • Harry Reidb. 1939USAmerican politician (1939–2021)
  • Kerry Reidb. 1947AUAustralian tennis player
  • Peter Reidb. 1956GBEnglish footballer, manager, and pundit
  • Tara Reidb. 1975USAmerican actress (born 1975)
  • Sam Reidb. 1987AUAustralian actor
  • Riley Reidb. 1991USAmerican pornographic actress (born 1991)
  • Storm Reidb. 2003USAmerican actress

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●

Attested in 75 sources across 43 countries.

Official registers attesting Reid
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010111K#275
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020109K#281
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000104K#263
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202031K#1,215
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—1.4K#6,976
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20251.1K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020873#1,215
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—794#514
GY GuyanaGuyana — Official List of Electors July 20252025726#146
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—426#9,087
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—426#9,072
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—168#5,457

Reference works 6

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname 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 2026-09-12 data build · 460 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Reid?
We estimate roughly 282 thousand people bear Reid (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.
In which country does Reid have the most bearers?
Reid is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled reed.
How common is Reid compared with other names?
In the United Kingdom, Reid is the 25th most common surname of 1,169,970 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Reid mean?
Recorded meaning: (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…
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/reid

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

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, “Reid” — the 25th most common surname in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Reid parses inside a full name →