Family name origins & meanings
- English : of uncertain origin; Reaney suggests a nickname from Old French ras ‘clean shaven’, but he also cites documentary evidence of a personal name which probably also gave rise to the surname.
- Perhaps a variant of Dutch or German Rase.
- Slovenian (southwestern Slovenia) : nickname from raca ‘duck’, formed with the suffix -e, used mainly of young people, possibly denoting someone who walked like a duck.