Rein

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, animal or young child

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/ɹeɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Rein is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 12K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 79K
  • PHPhilippines≈1 in 156K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Germany (inferred from the name graph)

≈6,500 people, est.

Sources
333 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 7.3K (inferred from the name graph)

Norway

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from Germ. *ragin- 'counsel' or from rain 'border, edge'; also as place-name source

Sources 1

  • Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

How Rein is read(measured from records)

Rein is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English63%

    A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, animal or young child.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • German16%

    from Germ. *ragin- 'counsel' or from rain 'border, edge'; also as place-name source

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

    pure, clear, clean

    as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German

    pure, clear, plain

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

    Patro-/Metronym aus einstämmiger Kurzform zu Rufnamen mit Rein-; 2728 Träger.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

  • Spanish6.1%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Rein in Spanish.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Rein counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Rein is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany—≈6,500 est.≈1 in 12K—Rein144
US United States—4,1991 in 79K4.2KRein333
IT Italy—≈780 est.≈1 in 80K1Rein6
NO Norway—7461 in 7.3K746—24
PH Philippines—≈700 est.≈1 in 156K—Rein45
FI Finland—3171 in 18K596—6
AT Austria—≈250 est.≈1 in 35K—Rein31
EE Estonia—≈160 est.≈1 in 7.8K3.8KRein26
AG Antigua & Barbuda#346———Rein1

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Statistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Rein is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Estonian surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Estonia, Philippines, Finland

    Languages: Estonian, Finnish

    Also written Reĭn

  • Dutch surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Netherlands, United States, Belgium, South Africa

    Also written Reîn

  • French surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Belgium, Philippines

    Also written Rëin, Ręįņ, Rèin, Réïñ, Rëïn

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Reĭn, Rėĭn

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Rein is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Romansh, the Rhine (a river in Central Europe)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Johannes Justus Rein, b. 1835Wilhelm Rein, b. 1847Torolf Rein, b. 1934Yevgeny Rein, b. 1935Antoine Rein, b. 1953Andrew Rein, b. 1958Thérèse Rein, b. 1958Christian Rein, b. 1970Trine Rein, b. 1970

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Mr Rein,
InformalHi Rein,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 58 sources across 28 countries.

Official registers attesting Rein
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
EE EstoniaStatistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register)—3.8K#22
EE EstoniaStatistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed)—3.8K#22
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—596#988
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—496#2,525
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020316#21,819
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020146#21,819
FI FinlandDVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register)—40—
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—25#18,975
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)202512—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20256—
IT ItalyISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend)20241#21,173
EE EstoniaSiseministeerium — population register name list 20232023——

Reference works 7

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Rein come from?
from Germ. *ragin- 'counsel' or from rain 'border, edge'; also as place-name source Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
What are other forms of the name Rein?
In the etymology graph, Riddle and Raus are forms of the same name in other languages.
How do you pronounce Rein?
A machine transcription gives /ɹeɪn/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Rein mean?
In English, A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, animal or young child.
In which country does Rein have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 6.5 thousand people named Rein in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled rein.
Where is Rein most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Rein is densest in Norway — about 1 in 7.3 thousand people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Rein?
In the United States, the national register counted 4,199 people named Rein in 2010, about 1 in 79 thousand residents.
How common is Rein compared with other names?
In Antigua & Barbuda, Rein is the 346th most common surname of 30,187 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Rein?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/rein

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Rein” — the 346th most common surname in Antigua & Barbuda. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Rein parses inside a full name →