REED. 1. Red— allusive to complexion or dress, probably the former. This is a common medieval spelling. " What betokeneth it whan the sonne gothe downe reed?"'' Palsgrave. Maundevile says of the Red Sea : " that see is not more reed than another see." 2. Reed, a parish in Hertfordsliire ; Reede, another in Suffolk. The Reeds of Cragg, co. Northumberland, probably took their name from Redesdale, in which they have been immemorially located, or rather from the river which gives name to that dale. On a mural monument in Elsdon church, erected in the year 1758, to the memory of Elrington Reed, the family are stated to have been resident in Redesdale for more than nine hundred years. This Sir Walter Scott calls an " incredible space " of time, and so it is ; though the high antiquity of the family is unquestionable. See notes to Rokeby.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.