Find out how popular the last name Reis is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Reis.

Reis, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Reis surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Reis in America

Reis is the 2953rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Reis surname appeared 12,165 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Reis.

We can also compare 2010 data for Reis to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Reis

The surname REIS is of German and Portuguese origin, deriving from the Old German word "reisa" meaning journey or travel. It can also be traced back to the Portuguese word "rei", meaning king.

The name first appeared in historical records during the 12th century in various regions of Germany and Portugal. In Germany, it was prevalent in areas like Bavaria and Saxony, while in Portugal, it was concentrated around the regions of Lisbon and Porto.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name REIS can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval charters and documents from Saxony, dating back to the year 1185. Here, a certain "Heinricus Reis" is mentioned as a landowner in the town of Meissen.

In Portugal, the name REIS gained prominence during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries. Several notable explorers and navigators bore this surname, including Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467-1520), the Portuguese explorer who is credited with the discovery of Brazil in 1500.

Another famous bearer of the REIS surname was João Fernandes Reis (1632-1696), a Portuguese architect and military engineer who worked on fortifications and public buildings across the Portuguese empire, including the iconic Monastery of Batalha in central Portugal.

The name also appeared in various place names and older spellings, such as "Reisbach" in Bavaria, which translates to "Travel's Brook", and "Reiskirchen" in Hesse, meaning "Travel's Church".

Other notable individuals with the REIS surname throughout history include:

1. Ferdinand Reis (1784-1838), a German teacher and inventor, who co-invented the first telephone together with Philipp Reis in 1861.
2. Rachel Reis-Sobreiro (1901-1983), a Brazilian writer and poet, known for her contributions to the Modernist movement in Brazilian literature.
3. Isaac Jacob Reis (1899-1977), a South African-born British mathematician and physicist, known for his work on quantum mechanics and electromagnetism.
4. Heinrich Reis (1766-1828), a German businessman and philanthropist, who founded the Reis'sche Lehr- und Denkübungsanstalt, an educational institution in Frankfurt am Main.
5. António Ferreira Reis (1887-1967), a Portuguese politician and diplomat, who served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1950 to 1958.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Reis

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Reis.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Reis was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Reis has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Reis was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Reis, please contact us.

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