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I'm in Oklahoma. Howdy, neighbor! :)
No, I haven't heard such a story in the 25 years I've been doing Rea genealogy, and I doubt it applies to any line other than, perhaps your own. The thing to understand is that not all Rea families have the same origin. There are many Rea lines that are not related to each other. I know this for a fact, as the founder of the Rea Surname DNA Project (http://garyr50.tripod.com/Rea_Surname_DNA_Project.htm).
My line is Scots-Irish, as far as I know, though I haven't managed to get beyond 1774 in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland yet. I have seen data on Reas in Northern Ireland in the 1600s, of course, but I have no idea which of them are mine or yours.
I will say this, much, though; one of the origins of the name most frequently cited is that the name is a nature name, having to do with rivers and streams, so an origin from the name of a lake is not at all improbable. The problem would be in finding a lake named Rea (or one of its variant spellings) somewhere in either Scotland or Ireland. I don't know of any such lake, however.
As for the William Rea born in Ballynahinch in 1715, I have since ruled him out as a potential ancestor of mine, based upon material contained in an article by William Roulston (Reconstructing an 18th Century Ulster Family: The Reas of Magheraknock and Killeen, County Down).
Gary
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