Comments (Meaning / History Only)

Reed is an English surname, not Scottish (although it happens to be found in Scotland too). The meanings are: 1) nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Middle English re(a)d ‘red’. 2) topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, from an unattested Old English ried, ‘woodland clearing’. 3) habitational name from various places: Read in Lancashire, the name of which is a contracted form of Old English rægheafod, from ræge ‘female roe deer’, ‘she-goat’ + heafod ‘head(land)’; Rede in Suffolk, so called from Old English hreod ‘reeds’; or Reed in Hertfordshire, so called from an Old English ryhð ‘brushwood’. [noted -ed]

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