by Jim Young (guest)
10/26/2007, 5:55 AM
I think we can safely say that this is a name equivalent to the English Richard, and so a surname derived from the given name of a male ancestor. The spelling is problematic; Richard is (I think) Reichart in German, Ryszard in Polish. As far as I can ascertain the spelling Ricardt does not exist in modern-day Germany or Poland. There are, however, a few Germans surnamed Ricard, which, I suspect, is a Huguenot name. Berlin had a substantial Huguenot population in the 18th century, some of whom might have settled elsewhere in Prussia.
Nothing certain, but a possible area of research?