Roster Family History

German (also Röster): occupational name for a lime burner, smelter, or blacksmith, a variant of Rost 2 with the addition of the agent suffix -er. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic; also Röster): variant of Rost 3 with the addition of the agent suffix -er (compare 1 above).

English: commonly a shortened form of Rossiter. English: in the West Midlands likely a habitational name from Rocester (Staffordshire), pronounced like the word roaster, probably from Old English rūh ‘rough’ + ceaster ‘old (Roman) fortification’.

Alternatively, the name may arise from Wroxeter (Shropshire), but this is a doubtful explanation as no medieval evidence has been found of a surname derived from this place.

Wroxeter, on the site of a former Roman town, is named with Old English ceaster ‘city, fortified town’, which has been added to a pre-existing Brittonic name for it, perhaps Viriconion ‘the town of a man named Virico’.