Reis

Family name origins & meanings

• German : from Middle High German rīs ‘undergrowth’, ‘brushwood’; a topographic name for someone who lived in an overgrown area, or a habitational name from Reis or Reissen in Bavaria, named with this word.
• German : occupational name for a cobbler, Middle High German riuze. Compare Reuss.
• German : variant of Reiss 2, or from the Huguenot name Ris.
• Altered spelling of German Ries.
• Portuguese and Galician : from a short form of dos Reis ‘(of) the (Three) Kings’, a personal name popularly bestowed on someone born on the feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. This is a frequent family name in southern Portugal.
• Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a dealer in rice or an ornamental name from German Reis ‘rice’.
• Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Reis ‘twig’, ‘branch’.
• Turkish : from reis ‘boss’, ‘chief’, ‘head of a business enterprise’. A Greek derivative of this is also found as a surname, in the form Reizis.