I want to know the origin of the last name "Reybold." I have been
told that it is either German or British in origin, but I have not
been able to find any hard data on this. I also know that of the few
Reybold families in the U.S., most are located in the New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware area. Specifically, I am looking for a
meaning for the name, what nation it originated from, what area of
that nation, if possible.
There are a lot of genealogy sites out there, but what I am not
looking for is a list of links to these sites. |
Request for Question Clarification by
answerfinder-ga
on
19 Sep 2006 01:13 PDT
Dear greeneyes521-ga,
I have found no definitive answer for you, but I suspect from my own
experience of genealogy that the suname Reybold may be a corruption,
perhaps of the British surnames Raybold or Raybould.
If you search the 1881 census for US and Britain with the exact
spelling of Reybold, there are 62 shown in the US but none in Britain
or Canada. 55 of these were born in the States, and 7 in Germany, but
it is to be noted that they had anglicized first names.
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp
If you search the British 1841 census there is only one family shown
with the surname Reybold. I suspect this is the result of bad
handwriting or bad spelling on the census return.
http://www.1837online.com/HomeServlet
For both countries in these censuses there is a high volume of hits on
the surnames Raybold and Raybould.
If you search the National Archives in the UK, there are only three
documents with the spelling Reybold or near variations. One document
is even transcribed as Reabold or Reybold. There is high volume
responses to Raybold and Rayboulds.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
A search on the Surname Profiler Project Website in the UK shows that
both Raybold and Raybould surnames in 1881 were concentrated in the
West Midlands area of England. No data was available for Reybold as
there were insufficient names found.
http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/default.aspx
I could find nothing which suggest the surname came from Germany.
In view of the above, I suggest that the surname Reybold is probably a
corruption of the name Raybold or Raybould.
Let me know if this answers your question, or whether I can expand it
in any particular area.
answerfinder-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
answerfinder-ga
on
19 Sep 2006 04:18 PDT
greeneyes521-ga,
Perhaps there may be a German connection, see myoarin-ga's helpful comment below.
In view of that, ignore my request as to whether this research serves as an answer.
answerfinder-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
scriptor-ga
on
19 Sep 2006 09:01 PDT
Personally, I believe that the name Reybold is of German origin. I
will do research in German books on surname etymology the next days.
Should Reybold prove to be an alternative form of Reibold (a rare, but
existing family name in Germany today), I will let you know.
Regards,
Scriptor
|
Request for Question Clarification by
scriptor-ga
on
22 Sep 2006 10:14 PDT
Well, I have spent some time in the library today. Unfortunately, I
can't offer a good answer. The name "Reybold" is not listed in any of
the books on surname etymology, while "Reibold" is (a name with very
old Germanic roots, by the way). This does not mean that Reybold was
never a German name. Since German surnames developed over a very long
period of time, with countless variants, it is impossible to include
all names that existed. And I found numerous examples for spelling
variants where an "i" was replaced with a "y". We are talking about
times when spelling was not at all static, so there might certainly
have been Reibolds whose surname was spelled as Reybold. The problem
is that I can't prove it. So I'll leave this question to someone who
has better sources than I could find.
Regards,
Scriptor
|
