Rice Family History

Welsh: Anglicized pronunciation of one of the most common Welsh personal names Rhys from a form originally meaning ‘rash impetuous’ also spelled Rys and Re(e)s. See also Reese with which it is interchangeable as a result of different Anglicized forms of the Welsh vowel y and also compare Preece and Price. Initial R- in Welsh is voiceless and often spelled Rh- but in English R- is voiced as in the Anglicized surnames Rees and Rice.

Welsh y is a short back vowel /ɪ/. In the medieval period the English approximation of this vowel was either /i/ or /e/ lengthened to /i:/ and /e:/. Subsequent sound changes in English produced the alternative pronunciations represented in Rees, Preece, Rice, and Price. The name has also been established in Ireland from an early date.

English: either a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a thicket (Middle English ris, rice, ris from Old English hrīs, Old Norse hrís) or a habitational name for someone who came from a place called with this word such as Rise (East Yorkshire).

English: perhaps a nickname from Middle English Rys(e) and Re(e)s which when without a preposition could derive from one or other of several Old French and Middle English words including Anglo-Norman French ris ‘laughter, smile’ and Middle English ris, res ‘stem, stalk’ in origin the same word as in 2 above.

Additionally, Middle English ris, rise, rice, res, Old French ris, riz ‘rice’ perhaps a nickname for a rice dealer or a cook. Americanized form of German Reis.