Reeve
An English occupational surname for a steward, bailiff, or manor official.
The #6,312 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 57,112 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Reeve comes from Old English gerēfa, the word for a local official, steward, or bailiff. In Middle English it appears as reve or refe, and the surname would originally have been given to someone who held that office or worked in a similar managerial role on an estate. The literal sense is therefore “the reeve” or “the official.”
History
The name is recorded early in England and is especially associated with northern and western English usage in some historical surname studies. Chaucer’s Reeve in The Canterbury Tales helped fix the occupational meaning in the literary imagination, where the reeve is portrayed as a capable estate manager. As a surname, it remained fairly straightforward and has continued in use in England and later in the wider English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Chaucer’s Reeve is one of the most famous literary reeves in English, and his job description is a close match to the surname’s original meaning.
From the historical record
“2 V. Reason. REEVE (Eng.) Steward, Bailiff [M.E. reve, refe, etc. ; O.E. ge)rdfa\ John le Reve. — Hund. Rolls. The reve was a sclendre colerik man . . . Wei koude he kepe a garner and a bynne ... In youthe he lerned hadde a good myster [trade] ;”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)