Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : occupational name for an assistant in a bathhouse or a barber’s shop, from an agent derivative of Middle High German riben ‘to rub’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname from Yiddish rayber ‘great eater’, ‘someone who rubs’ (see 1).

Subscribe to Family Education

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe