Roder last name popularity, history, and meaning

Find out how popular the last name Roder is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Roder.

Meaning of Roder

A habitational surname derived from a placename meaning "a clearing" or "a pasture."

Roder, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Roder surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Roder in America

Roder is the 18385th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Roder surname appeared 1,506 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Roder.

We can also compare 2010 data for Roder to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 18385 17475 5.08%
Count 1,506 1,487 1.27%
Proportion per 100k 0.51 0.55 -7.55%

The history of the last name Roder

The surname RODER originated in Germany during the medieval period. It is derived from the Old German word "rod" or "rot", meaning "to clear land" or "to prepare land for cultivation". The name likely referred to an occupation, denoting someone who cleared forests or prepared land for agricultural use.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name RODER can be found in the Codex Traditionum Westfalicarum, a medieval manuscript from the 9th century, which mentions a landowner named Rothari Roder. This suggests that the name was already in use during the Carolingian era in the region of Westphalia, Germany.

In the 11th century, the name RODER appears in the Traditiones et Antiquitates Fuldenses, a collection of documents from the Benedictine abbey of Fulda. This record mentions a man named Cuno Roder, who donated land to the abbey in the year 1057.

During the 13th century, the name RODER can be found in various records from the region of Franconia, in present-day Bavaria, Germany. One notable example is the appearance of Johannes Roder, a burgher (citizen) of the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the town's records from 1289.

In the 14th century, the name RODER was also present in the Duchy of Saxony. The Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae mentions a nobleman named Dietrich Roder, who was a vassal of the Duke of Saxony in the year 1327.

Historically, the name RODER was associated with various places, such as Rodersdorf (now Rohrbach) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and Roderhausen, a district of the city of Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Some notable individuals with the surname RODER throughout history include:

  1. Heinrich Roder (c. 1455 - c. 1518), a German printer and publisher from Würzburg, known for publishing early printed works.

  2. Johann Roder (c. 1525 - 1592), a German humanist scholar and author from Nuremberg, who wrote on various subjects, including mathematics and astronomy.

  3. Christoph Roder (1619 - 1682), a German composer and organist from Erfurt, known for his sacred music compositions.

  4. Johann Georg Roder (1688 - 1759), a German painter from Nuremberg, renowned for his portraits and religious artworks.

  5. Karl Gottlieb Roder (1812 - 1883), a German architect from Dresden, who designed several notable buildings in the city, including the Semperoper opera house.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Roder

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Roder.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

  1. White only
  2. Black only
  3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
  4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
  5. Hispanic
  6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Roder was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 92.56% 1,394
Non-Hispanic Black Only 1.79% 27
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.13% 17
Hispanic Origin 3.72% 56

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Roder has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 92.56% 92.80% -0.26%
Black 1.79% 2.02% -12.07%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 1.13% 1.01% 11.21%
Hispanic 3.72% 3.43% 8.11%

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Roder was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Roder, please contact us.

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"Roder last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/roder-surname-popularity/.

"Roder last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/roder-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

Roder last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/roder-surname-popularity/.

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