Rust
A surname that can come from a nickname for a reddish complexion or from an old personal name, and in some cases may be locational.
The #2,967 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,546 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained from the word for rust or redness, used as a nickname for someone with reddish coloring or a rufous appearance. Some early sources also connect it with an old personal name, and in English place-name evidence suggests the same root could be used more broadly in naming. In continental Europe, related forms may also reflect shorter forms of names such as Russet or German place-name associations.
History
The name is found in medieval English records, including Norfolk and other eastern counties, and it later remained fairly local in Britain. One tradition links it to Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian naming habits, while another treats it as a shortened form of Russet. Barber also notes an Old English personal-name possibility and a Norfolk place-name connection for Ruston.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 20th-century surname dictionary notes an Anglo-Saxon nickname Godwine Rust, showing that Rust could function as an actual descriptive byname, not just a modern surname.
From the historical record
“milated to Rust. RUST (A.-Fri-Lat.) a monosyllabized form of Russet, q.v. (Teut.) There is evidence (cp. the A.-Sax. place-names Rustingden, Rustewelle, and the Sussex ' Rustington ') that the A.-Sax. and Dan.-Norw. rAst, 'rust,' originally 'red,' 'redness,' was used in nomen- clature (the co-radical llatin word…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)