Regent Family History

Polish, Czech, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic); French (Régent): status name or nickname from a vernacular form of Latin regens ‘ruling’, present participle of regere ‘to rule’. The usual meaning of the word is ‘one who governs in place of a sovereign (typically one who is still a child or who is incapacitated through mental or other illness)’.

But at certain medieval universities, regent was a status name for a member of the teaching faculty who held a particular position of authority. The surname could have denoted a servant of a regent in either sense, or it may have been a nickname for someone who behaved as if he was in charge.

As a Jewish name, it is artificial. English (Suffolk): variant of Ridgeon (also found as Redgin and Redgen), a Suffolk form of Rigden.

The addition of final -t may have been motivated by false association with the word regent (see 1 above).