Rhyne
A surname most often linked to the Rhine region or to a local place-name derived from the Rhine river.
The #7,373 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,337 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Rhyne is usually treated as a variant spelling of Rhine, a surname formed from the name of the Rhine river and the regions along it. In English and German naming, such forms often began as identifiers for someone who came from the Rhine valley or from a place called after the river. The spelling Rhyne reflects later English phonetic reshaping rather than a separate root in most cases.
History
In Britain and later North America, Rhine-type surnames were often altered in spelling as families moved and clerks wrote names as they sounded. The form Rhyne is especially found in the United States, where variant spellings became fixed in different family lines. It may also sometimes overlap with locally created place-based surnames that were independently spelled in similar ways.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because surname spellings were not standardized for centuries, Rhyne and Rhine can represent the same family line in some records—and entirely different lines in others.