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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : nickname for an irascible or excitable man, from Middle High German ræsse ‘wild’, ‘raging’.
  • German : topographic name from ress ‘slope’ or ‘drainage channel’.
  • German : from a short form of a Germanic personal name formed with rād, rāt ‘advice’, ‘counsel’.

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