How common is the surname Reff?

657 people in the United States had the surname Reff in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 469,932 Americans. It ranked 34,465th of 162,253 surnames.

Is the surname Reff getting more or less common?

Less common. 672 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 657 in 2010, down 2.2%.

The surname Reff

A German occupational surname, carried by 657 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex R100

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Reff is more common than 78.8% of them.

Origin

German origin

Borrowed from German Reff (“wooden frame”), a metonymic occupational surname for a carrier or peddler.

Reff is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 657 people named Reff in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 469,932 Americans. That is down 2.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 672.

#34,465

rank among US surnames

657

people in 2010

0.2

per 100,000 Americans

-2.2%

change since 2000 (was #32,302)

Who is named Reff

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

86% of people named Reff identified as white (not Hispanic), 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.9% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 86%
Black (not Hispanic) 7.8%
Two or more races 2.9%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.0%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Reff

Reff has the Soundex code R100, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R100.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Reff come from?: Borrowed from German Reff (“wooden frame”), a metonymic occupational surname for a carrier or peddler.
How common is the surname Reff?: 657 people in the United States had the surname Reff in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 469,932 Americans. It ranked 34,465th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Reff?: In the 2010 Census, 86% of people named Reff identified as white (not Hispanic), and 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic).
What type of surname is Reff?: Reff is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Reff getting more or less common?: Less common. 672 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 657 in 2010, down 2.2%.