4,238 Global ROSSON Family Members

ROSSON Family History

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Rostherne in Cheshire. The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Rodestorne", and as "Routhestorn" in the 1228 Chartulary of the Abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester. The derivation of the placename is from the Old Norse personal name "Rauthr" (Old Danish "Roth", a personal name that translates as "the red one"), and the Olde English pre 7th Century "thorn", thorn-bush; hence, "Rauth's thorn-bush". Locational surnames were given to the lord of the manor, and to those former inhabitants who left to live or work in another area, and in this way the spelling of the name often changed with varying regional pronunciations.