Family name origins & meanings
- German : from a Germanic personal name composed with rag- ‘advice’, ‘counsel’, rāh(ha) ‘revenge’, or rīc ‘power(ful)’.
- South German : nickname from a diminutive of Middle High German rū ‘rough’, derived from a base form reule ‘coarse-haired (person)’. Compare German rauh.
- habitational name from a place in Rhineland called Reil.