The names in rand have been a difficulty; but the word is best referred to the Gothic razn, a house, and likewise a shield, from the protection both afford.
    Rand is a northern prefix, and its derivatives are not easy to distinguish from those of Regin and Raven.  Röndolfr, or House wolf, was certainly a northern name, and the same seems to have belonged to St. Radulphus, bishop of Bourges in 888, and to thirty-eight Radulfs in Domesday Book, then to the good justiciary, Ranulf de Glanville, under Henry II., to the crusading Earl Randle of Chester, and subsequently to many a Randal, Randolf, and Ralf, or, as we foolishly spell the word, Ralph. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884).