This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the roe'; compare Stagg, Buck, Roebuck, and Scottish Rae, which see. North English, ra; Anglo-Saxon rah. Such sobriquets were highly popular and gladly retained, being of a complimentary character.

Reginald le Raye, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Nicholas le Ray, Suffolk, ibid.

Richard le Ray, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

William le Ray, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

John le Ray, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

Etheldreda le Ray, Close Rolls, 17 Edward III.

(2) Local, 'of the Wray'; v. Wray. This would inevitably be stripped of the initial 'w' in many cases.

1790. Married — Robert Ray and Elizabeth Arlington: St. George, Hanover Square.

Thomas filius Ray witnessed confirmation by Alexander, son of Walter, of his fathor's gift to the church of Paisley, 1239 (RMP., p. 225). John Ray held a tenement in Glasgow in 1487 (REG., p. 454), and William Ray, burgess of Edinburgh, had a safe conduct into England in 1465 (Bain, IV, 1361). Sir William Ray is recorded in 1530 as "vmquhyle chaplane to our lady chappell of the brig of Dei" (CRA., p. 129), and William Ray had a charter of six acres of land in the burgh of Kethik from the Abbey of Coupar-Angus, 1558 (Cupar-Angus, II, p. 169-170). The surname is also found in Stirling in 1546. See also Rae.

(English and Scandinavian) a pers. name, nickname, and sign-name from the Roe [Middle English ray(e, ra, Old English Old Norse rá, a roe] Richard le Ray.—Hundred Rolls Undir the rise the ra dyd ryn.—‘Tayis Bank,’37. (Scandinavian) for Wray, q.v.

(French-Latin) King (a nickname or pageant- name) [Old French ray, rey, Latin rex, regis, king] (Celtic) Dweller at a Plain or Level [Gaelic (and Irish) reidh (dh mute] Cp. Rae.

This can be a corrupt form of Reavey, q.v. or a variant of Rea, q.v. or of Wray, q.v

(English) Descendant of Ray, a pet form of Raymond (wise, protector); dweller at the sign of the roe deer; one with some of the qualities of the roe deer; one who played the part of the king in play or pageant; one who was connected in some way with a king’s household.

The estate of Gill, in the parish of Bromfield, co. Cumberland, belonged to the family of Reay, or Ray, from the time of William the Lion, king of Scotland, who died in 1214. Tradition says, that the original Ray was a faithful adherent of the Scottish monarch, by whom he was greatly esteemed, for his extraordinary swiftness of foot in pursuing the deer (which, like that of the Homeric hero, ποδας ωκνς Αχιλλενς, exceeded that of most horsemen and dogs) and who gave him the estate. The tenure was by a pepper-com rent, with the stipulation, that the name of William should be perpetuated in the family. This was strictly observed from generation to generation, until the latter half of the last century, when the Mr. William Reay in possession gave to the ' hope of the house ' the name of John. From these Reays have sprung most, if not all, the Rays, Wreys, and Wrays, in England. John Ray, the naturalist, originally wrote himself Wray, and his ancestors, who but a generation or two before had emigrated from Cumberland, spelt their name indifferently Wray or Wrey. The surname itself was probably borrowed from the sobriquet of William the Lion's fleet-footed vassal, Ha, or raa, being the Anglo-Saxon, and rae the Lowland Scottish for a roe. Hutchinson's Cumberland, 1794, vol. ii. p. 302. The fish called a ray was so named after the great naturalist.

This name may have several origins. Ruadh and Reagh, Gaelic, swarthy, red, sandy complexioned. De, the moon. Bay, a beam of light, luster. De, from ruo, to rush, applied to a stream, rapids, whence the river Reay, in Caithness, Scotland. Rea, Cornish-British, wonderful, strange. Rhe, Welsh, a run, Rhedu, to run. Rhae, Welsh, a battle, the place of a battle; a chain.

Turstin de Rea, or Ree. Robert and Turstin de Rea, Normandy 1180-98 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Ralph, Robert de Ree, Engl. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum). William de Radio (Raye) in 1083 held lands Somerset (Exon. Domesd. 74).

Riay: Riay and Rea are the Northumberland forms of a name confined mostly to the north of England and the Scottish borders. Wray is its form in York and its vicinity. In Cumberland we find Reay and Ray; in the Scottish border counties Rae is the characteristic form; and in the distant county of Worcester there are a few of the name of Rea. The Reays or Rays, who have held the Gill estates in the parish of Bromfield, Cumberland, from the 13th to the present century, are believed by Lower to be the ancient stock of all the English Rays, Wrays, and Wreys.