Meaning

noun the seed of the cereal grass

noun hardy annual cereal grass widely cultivated in northern Europe where its grain is the chief ingredient of black bread and in North America for forage and soil improvement

noun whiskey distilled from rye or rye and malt

origin* As an English surname, variant of Rea. * Also as an English surname, from the noun rye. * As a Norwegian surname, from several farmsteads whose name derive from Old Norse rjóðr (“forest clearing”); see the verb ryðja (“to clear”). * As a Danish surname, from the town Ry in Skanderbord. * The town in England is perhaps derived from Old English riþ (“river, stream”) whence also rith; compare ree.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0