Frequency: (8166)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: nickname for a cheerful person, from Middle English rote ‘glad’ (Old English rōt).
2. English: metonymic occupational name for a player on the rote, an early medieval stringed instrument (Middle English, Old French rote, of uncertain origin but apparently ultimately akin to Welsh crwth).
3. Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a retting place (Dutch root, a derivative of ro(o)ten ‘to ret’, akin to modern English rot), a place where flax is soaked in tubs of water until the stems rot to release the linen fibers.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
