Rock Family History

English: from Middle English rok(ke) ‘rock’. The surname may be topographic denoting someone who lived near a notable rock or rocky outcrop or habitational denoting someone from a place called with this word such as Rock (Northumberland). Compare Roach.

English: from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter oke ‘at the oak’. The surname may be topographic signifying someone who lived by a prominent oak tree or habitational denoting someone from a place so named such as Rock (Worcestershire) Rook in Cornwood (Devon) and Rock in Washington (Sussex). Compare Nock.

English: perhaps a nickname for a spinner or a maker of distaffs from Middle English rok(ke) ‘distaff’ (from Old Norse rokkr or Middle Dutch rocke or an unattested Old English cognate). Compare Rocker.

Irish: in Ireland this is usually the English name but it has also been adopted for Mac Conchairge literally ‘son of the hound of the rock’; see McHarg.

German (also Röck): from a short form of the personal name Rocco (see Roche). German: metonymic occupational name for a tailor from Middle High German rok roc ‘skirt gown’. Shortened and altered form of southern French Roquebrune or of its variant Rocquebrune (see Rocque) or a shortened form of their altered form Larock. Compare Roch.