Read in my family treeEnglish: 1: nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Middle English re(a)d, Old English read red (the shortening of the vowel in the modern English vocabulary word is not well explained, though it is parallelled in bread, dead, and lead, where the spelling is more conservative). 2: topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing in woodland, Old English ried, ryd. 3: habitation name from various places: Read in Lancashire, the name of which is a contracted form of Old English rœgheafod, from rœge + heafod female roe deer + head(land); Rede in Suffolk, so called from Old English hreod reeds; or Reed in Hertfordshire, so called from Old English ryht brushwood.
Variants (of 1): Reade, Red, Redd, Reed; Readman, Redman; Reid (Scotland). (of 2): Attride, Attryde, Ride, Ryde; Rider.
Cognate (of 1 and 2): German: Roth.
Alternate Spelling: Radd.
A family called Read were established in America in the early 18th century by John Read, who was born in Dublin, sixth in descent from Sir Thomas Read of Berkshire England. His son, George Read (1733 - 1798), was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and as a lawyer helped frame the Constitution.
Read or variants was the 103rd most common name in England and Wales according to a survey taken by H.M.Treasury in 1944, with a relative frequency of 0.11%.
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