Rye
Usually a locational surname from the Sussex town of Rye, ultimately linked to a word for a bank or shore.
The #8,128 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 75,691 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is chiefly locational, referring to the town of Rye in Sussex. The place-name was explained in older sources as deriving from Old French rie, meaning a bank or shore, a word used for similar places in Normandy. Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a broad sense of an elevated or banked place, reflecting the coastal setting of Rye.
History
The name is recorded in medieval forms such as Ry and Rie, and it appears in later pedigrees connected with Norman settlement. One source notes a family tradition that a Hubert de Rye came over with the Conqueror and that descendants settled in several English counties. The surname also occurs among Huguenot refugees who settled at Rye in the 16th and 17th centuries, which may have reinforced local usage.
Origin
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Fun fact
Rye has long been attractive to etymologists because the place-name and the common noun for a bank or shore seem to point in the same direction.
From the historical record
“Cp. Roydon. RYE 1 Bel. to Ry (Seine-Inf6rieure, etc.) = the Bank [O.Fr. rie, a bank] This name occurs in the (supp.) copies of the Roll of Battle Ahhey — Ry in Leland's copy, Rie in Holihshed's copy. Mr. Walter Rye, F.S.A., sayS that "Hubert de Rye came over with the Conqueror, and his sons settled in Norfolk…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)