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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : variant spelling of Reader.
  • Dutch : variant of Reeder 2.
  • North German and Dutch : from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements rād ‘counsel’ + heri ‘army’.
  • North German and Dutch : occupational name for a ship owner or outfitter, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German rād ‘counsel’; ‘provisions’, ‘stock’.
  • North German : habitational name from any of various places named Rieder (earlier Redere) or Reher (earlier Rethere) in northern Germany.
  • Possibly an altered spelling of German Röder (see Roeder).

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