Origin of the name Ratner

This family name most probably originates from the shtetl Ratno of the Kovel area or from the shtetl Ratnya of the Radomist region.
Part of the researchers put forward an additional version of the origin of this name - from the word "rat" that in German and in Yiddish means "counsel". However in our view it is rather the name Ratman that comes from this word, that in translation from the same languages means "counselor". It remains to add that in the beginning of the 20-th centiry the name Ratner was spread in Mogilev, Vilno, Troki and Lida.