Family name origins & meanings
- Americanized spelling of German Rittenauer or Rettenauer, a topographic name for someone living by a swampy water meadow (from Retten ‘swamp’ + Au ‘water meadow’ + -er suffix denoting an inhabitant), or a habitational name from a place named with these elements.
- Americanized spelling of South German Rütt(e)nauer, perhaps a topographic name from Middle High German riute ‘clearing’ + ouwe ‘wet field’, ‘water meadow’.
- variant of Ridenhour.