Roca
A surname from the word for a rock, cliff, or rocky height.
The #8,611 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,845 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Roca is a Romance word meaning “rock” or “cliff,” from Latin roca/rocca in later medieval usage. As a surname, it could name someone who lived by a rocky place or came from a locality called Roca. In some areas it may also have overlapped with related forms such as Roca, Rocca, Roche, and Rocha, all built on the same basic idea of rock or stone.
History
The name is well attested in Catalan, Spanish, and Occitan-speaking areas, especially in place-name-rich regions where topographic surnames were common. Historical surname lists and medieval records show it alongside related forms such as Roc, Rocca, Roche, and Rocha. In modern times it is found in Spain and in Spanish-speaking communities abroad, including the Americas.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century Spanish source glosses roca simply as “stone” or a very hard, solid rock, which is exactly the sense that generated the surname.
From the historical record
“Rocke. A.S. Roc; N.-Fr. De la Roca ; Dch., G. Rock ; Fr. Rocque ; p.n. (a rook) Roger Roc in Rot. Obi. et Fin., K. John ; and Rot. Hund.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)