Reid is the 232nd most common surname name of the 88,799 most common surnames listed in the United States 1990 census.
Although it has sometimes been said that Reid is the Scottish spelling of the surname and Reed/Read/Reade is the English spelling, it more than likely has to do with the inconsistency of our ancestor's spelling of their surnames until the 19th century.
The surname Reid means a red-haired or ruddy person, and legend has it that the progenitor of the Scottish Reid line is Robert the Red (Riach) of Scotland.
Reid is among the 100 most numerous in Ireland and is one of the top forty in Ulster, where it is most common in counties Antrim, Down, Tyrone and Armagh. In Ireland, the surname can be of Irish, Scottish, and English origin.
In England and Scotland Reid is derived from the word red and denoted a person with red hair or of ruddy complexion, the work red in medieval time being pronounced 'reed'.
In Scotland the Islay surname MacRory, from Gaelic MacRuaraidh, became Reid. Also the Scots Gaelic name Ruadh, meaning red almost always became Reid.
In Ulster, the name O'Maoildeirg (Mulderrig), meaning descendant of the red warrior, became Reid. The County Roscommon name Mulready also became Reid.
Reid is a sept or division of the Scottish Clan Donnachaidh , the clan of Duncan and Macbeth of Shakespearian fame.
Source for some Reid facts: The Book of Ulster Surnames; Robert Bell, Blackstaff Press, Belfast and St. Paul, Minn, 1988; p. 219.
Forums
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Mailing Lists
A genealogical mailing list for the discussion and sharing of information regarding the Reid surname and variations
(e.g., Reade, Reed, Reid) in any place and at any time. The purpose of the list is to learn more about these families. Subscribers are therefore
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James Reid The piper executed by the British during the rebellion of 1745 for playing the bagpipes, 'an instrument of war'. In the narration of Clan Donnachaidh
Robert Reid The greatest maker and design innovator of the Northumbrian bagpipes who ever lived.
Frank Reid of Skagway, Alaska Killed Soapy Smith, con man and leader of lawlessness in Skagway during the gold rush of 1898, in a shootout that left both dead.
