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

Rothman, 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 Rothman surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rothman in America

Rothman is the 6336th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rothman surname appeared 5,379 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Rothman.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rothman 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.

The history of the last name Rothman

The surname Rothman originated in Germany, with the earliest known records dating back to the 13th century. It is derived from the German words "rot" meaning "red" and "mann" meaning "man," suggesting a possible link to someone with reddish hair or a ruddy complexion.

The name first appeared in various medieval documents from the regions of Bavaria and Saxony. In the 14th century, there are records of a Rothman family residing in the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which may have influenced the spelling and adoption of the surname.

One of the earliest documented references to the Rothman name can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of historical documents from Saxony, where a "Henricus Rothman" is mentioned in a land transaction dated 1328.

In the 15th century, a notable figure bearing the Rothman surname was Johannes Rothman, a German theologian and reformer (1462-1538) who played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation alongside Martin Luther.

Another prominent individual with this surname was Johann Rothman, a German astronomer (1608-1684) who made significant contributions to the study of comets and the calculation of their orbits.

During the 17th century, a Rothman family immigrated to the American colonies from Germany, with records indicating their settlement in Pennsylvania. One of their descendants, John Rothman (1770-1845), served as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.

In the 19th century, a well-known figure was William Rothman (1824-1901), a German-American industrialist who founded the Rothman Knitting Mills in Philadelphia, which became one of the largest textile manufacturers in the United States at the time.

As the name spread across Europe and beyond, variations in spelling emerged, such as Rothmann, Rotmann, and Rottman, reflecting regional linguistic differences and influences.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rothman

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

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 Rothman was:

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 Rothman has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

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 Rothman was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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