Rode Family History

German and French: from a short form of any of various ancient Germanic personal names with the first element hrōd ‘renown’. Compare Robert Rudiger.

North German Danish and English: topographic name for someone who lived on land cleared for cultivation or in a clearing in woodland from Middle Low German rode, Danish rothe, Old English rod. There are a number of places in England named with this word, for example Rode in Cheshire, and the surname may derive from any of these. Compare Rhode.

Slovenian: from an archaic derivative of rod ‘curly’, also ‘rude’, ‘fatless’ (figuratively ‘insipid’) and ‘barren’, hence a nickname for a person with disheveled hair or for a towhead, or for a rude or insipid person, or perhaps a topographic name denoting someone who lived on barren land.

French (southern): metonymic occupational name for a wheelwright or topographic name for someone who lived by a waterwheel from Occitan rode ‘wheel’ (from Latin rota).

French: habitational name from La Rode, a place in Puy-de-Dôme, named with Old Occitan roda ‘bush’.