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Updated February 1, 2024

Table of contents

Boy name origins & meanings

  • Old English : Rock fortress

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish (of Norman origin) : see Roache. This is the name of various important families in Munster (counties Cork, Wexford, and Limerick).
  • French : topographic name for someone who lived by a rocky outcrop or crag, Old French roche.
  • German : from a short form of a Germanic personal name, Rocco, based on hrok, of uncertain origin, or hrōd ‘renown’.
  • French bearers of the name were first documented in Château Richer, Quebec, in 1665; the secondary surname <xref>Lafontaine</xref> is also attested.

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