Frequency: (1527)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German: 1. habitational name for someone from any of several places called Reising or Reisingen in Bavaria. 2. occupational name for a soldier, from Middle High German reisinc ‘warrior’, literally, ‘traveler’. 3. in the south a topographic name, from Middle High German rīs ‘branch’, ‘shrubbery’, denoting someone who lived near a thicket or underbrush.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
