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Surname Etymology and Meaning of ROTH

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a person with red hair, from Middle High German rot, German rot ‘red’. As a Jewish surname it is also at least partly ornamental: its frequency as a Jewish surname is disproportionate to the number of Jews who, one may reasonably assume, were red-headed during the period of surname adoption.
2. German and English: topographic name for someone who lived on land that had been cleared, Old High German rod, Old English rod, roð.
3. German: from a short form of any of the various Germanic personal names with the first element hrod ‘renown’. Compare Rode 1, Ross 3.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)