Rhoades
An English surname that usually began as a place-name surname from Rhodes or Roads, later often respelled in American records.
The #1,949 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,682 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Rhoades is generally a spelling variant of Rhodes or Roads, surnames that could arise from several place-name sources. In English usage, it is often linked to places called Rhodes/Rhoads/Roads, and some forms may go back to Old English or Old Norse words for a clearing or a piece of cleared land. In some cases, especially in German-American records, Rhoades was also used as an altered spelling of German Roth, influenced by English spelling habits.
History
The surname is well attested in England, especially in the North and Midlands, where place-names like Rhodes and Roads helped generate family names. In the United States, Rhoades is also found as an Americanized or respelled form of German Roth in Pennsylvania German communities. The spelling Rhoades has become established as a distinct modern family name even where older records show Rhodes or Roads.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th- and early-20th-century surname scholars specifically noted Rhoades as one of the spellings that could conceal a German Roth in American records.
From the historical record
“On leaving our houses, we meet and converse with Messrs. Street, Delarue, Rhoades, Rohde, Lane, Llanes, Alley, Way, Dillaway, Hadaway, Hatha- way and Hatheway, Hemenway, Hemmenway, and Heminway, Holway, Hookway, Magilloway, Ord- way, Otterway, Ridgway ; Pons (" a bridge "), Bridge, Bridges, Bain bridge…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)