Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : descriptive epithet for a wise person or counselor, from Middle High German rāt ‘counsel’, ‘advice’, German Rat ‘counsel’, ‘advice’, also ‘stock’, ‘supply’.
- German (also Swiss Räth) : from a short form of any of the various Germanic compound personal names formed with rād, rāt ‘counsel’, ‘advice’ as the first element.
- German (Rhineland) : habitational name from any of various places called Rath, which derives from Middle Low German roden, raden ‘to clear land for cultivation’.
- Irish : in some cases a habitational name from a place called Rath; in County Derry it is a reduced form of McIlwraith (see McIlrath).