Explore the Family Name Roch

The meaning of Roch

1. French, German, Sorbian, Polish, and Czech: from the personal name Roch, Latin Rochus, of ancient Germanic origin, derived from Hrocho, a short form of the compound names with the first element hrok ‘crow’. It may have also been originally a byname meaning ‘crow’. The name was fairly common in the Middle Ages, bestowed in honor of a 14th-century Christian saint Rochus of Montpellier, remembered for his miraculous healings during an outbreak of the plague in northern Italy. 2. German and Czech: from a short form of ancient Germanic compound names like Rochold, related to 1 above. 3. German: nickname from Middle High German rou, rōch ‘rough’ for an immature person. 4. Czech and Sorbian: from a pet form of a personal name beginning with Ro-, such as Rodoslav (see Rod 3). 5. Shortened and altered form of southern French Roquebrune or of its variant Rocquebrune (see Rocque 1). Compare Rock 7. 6. English and Irish: of Norman origin, a habitational name from Roch (Pembrokeshire), named from the rock on which the Norman castle was built (see Roach). The derived Anglo-Norman surname flourished in Pembrokeshire and was also taken to Ireland (particularly Munster and Wexford) in the 12th century, whence it returned to England with Irish migrants in the 18th and 19th centuries. 7. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Rauch. History: Some of the American bearers of the surname Roch (see 5 above) are descendants of Philibert Couillaud dit Ro(c)quebrune from France (see Larocque). Some characteristic forenames: French Andre, Jacques, Emile, Gilles, Jean-Marc, Julien, Marcel, Michel, Pierre, Thierry, Yves.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.