Family name origins & meanings
- Of uncertain origin. Perhaps an altered spelling of Hungarian Radnay, a habitational name for someone from a place called Radna in Transylvania, or even of German Radnick, an occupational name for a councilman, from Sorbian. There are a few occurrences of the surname in England, and it could perhaps be a habitational name from Radnage in Buckinghamshire, named from Old English rēad ‘red’ + ǣc, dative of āc ‘oak’. Early spellings of the place name include Radeneghe (1241, 1262) alongside the more usual Radenache.