Reynolds
Son of Reynold — the counsel-ruler Norman first name.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Reynolds
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Reynolds.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
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Stake your name →What does the Reynolds name mean?
Patronymic — son of Reynold (the Norman first name Reynold, from Germanic ragin + wald, 'counsel-rule'). Reynold was a common Norman first name brought to England with the Conquest, particularly in the south-west where Reynold the Sheriff of Devon and several other senior tenants carried it. The patronymic compressed to Reynolds in the 14th–15th-century surname-fixation era; the variant spellings Rennolds and Reynold persist in the West Country and Ireland.
The history of Reynolds
Reynolds is among the top-100 English surnames, with the densest concentrations in Devon and Cornwall — the south-western Norman-marcher counties where the first-name Reynold remained current longest. By the 18th century the surname had diffused across the Anglophone world; the American spelling and the Irish-emigrant spelling are both Reynolds with the s, distinguishing it from the rarer Reynold.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), the Plympton, Devon-born portraitist, was the founding President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768 and the most prolific portrait painter in 18th-century English society — over 2,000 portraits, the entire upper register of Georgian Britain. Burt Reynolds (1936–2018), the Lansing, Michigan-born actor, was the highest-grossing American film actor of the late 1970s. Ryan Reynolds (b. 1976), the Vancouver-born actor of Deadpool, brings the surname into 21st-century cinema. Debbie Reynolds (1932–2016), the El Paso-born actress and singer, was Singin' in the Rain's Kathy Selden.
Notable bearers of the Reynolds name
- Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) — portraitist, founding President of the Royal Academy
- Burt Reynolds (1936–2018) — actor
- Ryan Reynolds (b. 1976) — actor (Deadpool)
- Debbie Reynolds (1932–2016) — actress (Singin' in the Rain)