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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : nickname for a ruffian, earlier for a hairy person, from Middle High German rūch, rūhe, rouch ‘hairy’, ‘shaggy’, ‘rough’.
  • English : from a medieval personal name, a variant of Ralph.
  • Italian (Sicily) : from a local variant of the personal name Rao, an old form of Ra(o)ul, composed of the Germanic elements rad ‘counsel’, ‘advice’ + wolf ‘wolf’. Compare Ralph.
  • Indian : variant of Rao.

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