Rhea
An English surname with more than one possible root, most likely a place-name or a name shaped by older forms meaning “roe deer” or “smooth slope.”
The #4,323 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,565 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Rhea is probably not from a single certain source. In historical name books it is linked to forms that can mean “roe” or “roe deer,” and in Manx material a related word is glossed as “smooth slope,” which points to a topographic origin in some cases. It may also be an altered spelling or anglicized form of a shorter Gaelic or Manx surname, rather than one fixed family line.
History
The name appears in English-speaking records in several spellings, and in some cases may have been reshaped by local pronunciation and later spelling habits. Because the surname is short and can overlap with classical and place-name vocabulary, it is hard to assign one universal origin to every family called Rhea. In the United States it remains relatively uncommon.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The name can be confused with the classical Titan goddess Rhea, but the surname does not necessarily come from that source.
From the historical record
“„ doo, black slope, 232 „ rhea* (r^'a), smooth slope, 132, 244 „ rhenny, or I.hergy renny, ferns', or ferny slope, 132, 243”
— The Surnames & Place-Names of the Isle of Man