Rice

Rice as an aristocratic name

ThePeerage.com lists over 300 peers named with Rice variants.

• Raisch (2)
• Reis (6)
• Reiss (11)
• Rice (285)
• Rice-Davis (2)
• Rice-Evans (1)
• Rice-Trevor (7)
• Ryche (2)
• Rys (2)

Many are so famous for being born filthy rich & privileged, they got their own Wiki pages.

• Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, grandson of 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, great-grandson of 1st Earl of Limerick, British ambassador to the US, and “close friend” of president Theodore Roosevelt.
• Frances Margaretta Rice, wife of 10th Earl of Winchilsea, mother of 13th Earl of Winchilsea & 14th Earl of Winchilsea.
• Sir Stephen Rice, born into a “family with large estates”, was then appointed baron of the exchequer & privy counsellor, without even having to swear an oath. Ancestor to the Rice barons Monteagle of Brandon.
• Rice barons Monteagle of Brandon: Thomas Spring Rice 1st, Thomas Spring Rice 2nd, Thomas Spring Rice 3rd, Francis Spring Rice, Charles Spring Rice, Gerald Spring Rice, Charles James Spring Rice. All were granted high offices for being born into wealth & privilege.
• Rice barons Dynevor, named Rice & Rhys starting from the 18th century onwards: Cecil de Cardonnel Rice, George Talbot Rice, George Rice-Trevor, Francis William Rice, Arthur de Cardonnel FitzUryan Rice, Walter FitzUryan Rice, Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys, Richard Charles Uryan Rhys, Hugo Griffith Uryan Rhys. All were granted high offices for being born into wealth & privilege.

Rice as a “Jewish” name & Arabic-Turkish title

“Rice” is a curious choice for a name, as no other cereals are taken for names. The origin is undecided with many possibilities given. Several Rice variants are explained as “Jewish” names. For some spellings, the name is admitted to be a Turkish or Arabic title.

• Rice, supposedly a “Welsh” name, but apparently also Irish, English, German.
• Rice, the surname used as a given name, as is common with aristocratic names.
• Rhys, the Welsh form, explained as “ardor” & “zeal”.
• Reiss, a “German” name, officially used by Ashkenazi Jews who were “dealers in rice”. Right.
• Reis, supposedly a “Portuguese” name, originally a “Christian devotional family name” derived from the Biblical Magi, but also a “German” name derived from a military rank in Turkey, also used by “some European Jews”.
• Raees, a name but also a title used by Arab rulers.
• Rais, a name but also a Muslim title.
• Piri Reis, “government-supported” “privateer”, then high-ranking Ottoman admiral bearing the reis title, who created some of the oldest world maps that still publicly exist, yet was allegedly beheaded in the end.

Titles reis & rais derived from rš for “head” & “chief”

I think this is already the solution: Rice is simply the transcription of Turkish reis, Arabic rais, both being leadership titles derived from the Semitc root rš meaning “head” & “top”. It’s got nothing to do with actual rice and is simply another punny spook name.

The transcription of the Hebrew pronunciation would be the Rose family of names.