The English surname Rider, also found in Ireland, is an occupational name for a mounted warrior or a messenger, late Old English ridere (from ridan ‘to ride’), a term quickly displaced after the Conquest by the new sense of Knight. When found in Ireland the name is a part translation of the Gaelic name Ó Marcaigh meaning “descendant of Marcach,” a byname meaning “horseman.” The first written reference to the name is in 1204 when Thomas le Rider is recorded in the “Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire.” Thomas and Sarah Rider settled in New England in 1634. Today there are approximately 16,000 bearers of the name Rider in the United States.
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