ROACH
Roach is a surname of English origin that has been recorded in the British Isles since the thirteenth century. It is a nickname, topographic, locational or occupational name of Middle English origin, derived from the word roche, the French for “rock”. Those who adopted the name were probably residents of the vicinity of a conspicuous stone, a rocky crag or a place named Roach in England.
Alternatively, the surname was employed for a person who caught or sold roach, a freshwater fish, or for one who came from a place called Roach. The meaning of the surname therefore varies with family history.
There are approximately thirty spellings of the name. In England the most common spelling remains Roach. The variant Roache and the French Roc(e) are also found, and the name was brought to Ireland by settlers from Normandy after the Norman invasion of the late eleventh century. In Ireland the name was Hibernised and became widespread in Munster and Wexford, where early Roche families settled. Place‑names such as Rochestown occur in Cork, Kilkenny and Wexford, and a sizeable tract of land is known as Roches County in Fermoy, County Cork.
Early documentary evidence for the name in England includes Lucas de Roches, recorded in Hampshire in 1249, and Ralph de la Roche, mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Cornwall in 1195. The earliest surviving entry is that of John de Roches, dated 1086 in the Domesday Book for Bedfordshire, during the reign of King William I, the Conqueror.
Notable bearers of the surname include Sir Boyle Roche (1743–1807), a celebrated wit in Britain; William Roache, a small landowner in Barbados in the late seventeenth century; and John Roach (flourished 1794), a bookseller and compiler who operated a shop on Drury Lane in London. In Ireland, Father Philip Roche and Edward Roche lost their lives for their prominent involvement in the 1798 Rebellion.
Throughout its history the Roach surname reflects a range of geographical and occupational associations, and its presence across England, Wales, and Ireland illustrates the wider diffusion of Norman and English surnames after the eleventh‑century conquest.
Typical given names associated with the Roach surname
Male
- Anthony
- Christopher
- David
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Stephen
Female
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Joan
- Julie
- Karen
- Margaret
- Mary
- Patricia
- Samantha
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Roach in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 8,469 people named Roach in the UK. That makes it roughly the 1,118th most common surname in Britain. Around 130 in a million people in Britain are named Roach.
Surname type: Nickname
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Roach
- Pat Roach - Professional wrestler and actor (1937 to 2004)
- Alexandra Roach - Welsh actress
- Ukweli Roach - Actor
- Neville Roach - Football player
- Charles Roach - Anglican priest (1908 to 2003)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.