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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Swiss German : topographic name for someone who lived in an area thickly grown with reeds, from Middle High German rōr (a collective singular) or near a well or channel rōr, or a habitational name from one of the several places named with this word.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental from German Rohr ‘reed’ (see 1 above).

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