Reuter
A surname with two main roots in German: it can mean either a horseman/trooper or, in some cases, a land-clearer.
The #4,644 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,396 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Reuter is usually explained from German words related to riding or clearing land. Some 19th- and early-20th-century writers linked it to German Reiter/Ruiter, meaning a horseman or trooper, while others pointed to Middle High German riutcere, a person who clears woodland for cultivation. The two explanations are both historically plausible for different branches of the name, and the surname may have arisen independently in more than one place.
History
The name is well established in German-speaking areas and also turns up in Dutch and Low German forms. English-language surname books sometimes treated it as a military or cavalry name, but later scholarship often stressed the land-clearing sense for at least part of the German evidence. In modern times Reuter is widely recognized through the news agency Reuters, whose name reflects the same surname form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The French word reitre once referred to a German trooper and was popularly associated with this surname family in older scholarship.
From the historical record
“REUBEN (Heb. ) Behold a Son [Heb. Kubhin — r'A, vision ; bin, a son] REUTER (Teut.-Lat.) Horseman, Trooper [the Mod. High Ger. Reuter is from the homophonous Dut. ruiter, L.Lat. ruptari-us — rupta, a troop: iJeMfer, however, occurs also in M.E. records] Cp. Ruttep. REVELEY (Eng.) Bel. to Reaveley (Northumb.), anc.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)