Explore the Family Name Rief

The meaning of Rief

German: from a variant of the personal name Rüef, Ruoff, shortened forms of Rudolf, or from a short form of the ancient Germanic personal name Ricfrid, composed of the elements rīc ‘power(ful), rich’ + frid ‘peace’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Rief in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Rief saw a slight shift in its popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the name ranked 30,791 but dropped slightly in rank to 31,587 by 2010, marking a decline of 2.59%. However, despite this drop in ranking, the actual count of individuals bearing the surname Rief increased by 2.52%, from 714 in 2000 to 732 in 2010. The proportion of individuals with this surname per 100k also decreased slightly, from 0.26 in 2000 to 0.25 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#30,791	#31,587	-2.59%
Count	714	732	2.52%
Proportion per 100k	0.26	0.25	-3.85%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Rief

The ethnicity data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that there has been some change within the ethnic identities associated with the surname Rief between 2000 and 2010. The largest ethnic group associated with the surname remained White, although this percentage decreased slightly from 96.64% in 2000 to 94.54% in 2010. The fastest-growing ethnic identity associated with the surname was Hispanic, which increased by 95.54% from 1.12% in 2000 to 2.19% in 2010. Asian/Pacific Islander also saw significant growth of 75.71%, moving from 0.70% in 2000 to 1.23% in 2010. Meanwhile, the proportion of individuals identifying as two or more races grew modestly from 1.26% to 1.5%. There were no persons identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.64%	94.54%	-2.17%
Hispanic	1.12%	2.19%	95.54%
Two or More Races	1.26%	1.5%	19.05%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.7%	1.23%	75.71%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%