This name derives from Anglo-Saxon surname “Radcliffe, Ratcliffe, Radclyffe”, composed of two elements: “rēad” (red) plus “clif” (slope, bank, cliff)”. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) word was used not only in the sense of the modern English "cliff" but also of much gentler slopes, and frequently also of a riverbank. It is a locational name from the various places in England such as the villages of Ratcliffe in the counties of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, Radcliffe in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, Redcliffe in Bristol and Warwickshire, Radclive in Buckinghamshire, and Rathclyffe and Rathcliffes in the county of Devon.
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