Herkunft & Geschichte

Scottish and northern English descriptive surname from Middle English and Scots 'reid', meaning 'red' — typically applied to a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion. The Scots form 'Reid' is distinct from the English 'Reed' or 'Read', though all share the same colour-descriptor origin. Red hair has historically been associated with Celtic populations in Scotland and Ireland, making the name particularly common in areas of dense Gaelic settlement. Reid is concentrated in the Lowlands and north-east Scotland and is among the most distinctively Scottish spellings of the red-descriptor surname group.