Rhee
A surname found in Dutch and English records, often linked to a place-name or a word for a roe/deer.
The #8,141 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 75,840 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Rhee is most plausibly Dutch in origin. In the historical material, it is connected with Dutch place-names, especially Van Rhee, which was explained as deriving from a hamlet called Ree near Vries in Drenthe. Separate Dutch onomastic notes also associate similar forms with ree, meaning a roe or deer, so the name may ultimately be tied to a place-name built on that word.
History
The name appears in Dutch surname discussions and seems to belong to the broader group of surnames formed from localities or small settlement names. In English-speaking countries, Rhee is also found as a spelling variant or simplified form in immigrant records, though the exact line of transmission can vary by family. The sources here do not show a single universal origin for all bearers, so different Rhee families may have different histories.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century Dutch surname writer specifically linked Van Rhee to a hamlet called Ree near Vries in Drenthe.
From the historical record
“REYNOLDSON. The son of Reynolds. RHEFELDT. The deer-field, from the Dutch rhee, a roe, and feldt, a field. RHODES. Local From the island of Rhodes, hi the Mediter- ranean Sea. Rhodes, a town in Guienne, France.”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names