Roger
A surname from the medieval personal name Roger, originally brought to England by the Normans.
The #8,176 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,158 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Roger comes from the medieval personal name Roger, which entered England with the Normans. The name goes back through Old French forms such as Roger or Rogier to an earlier Germanic given name, usually taken to mean something like “famous spear” from elements for “fame” and “spear.” Medieval Latin records also show forms such as Rogerus. The surname was first used simply to identify someone as the son or descendant of a man called Roger.
History
The name appears in Domesday-era records and was already common among Norman settlers and their descendants. English surnames such as Rogers, Rodgers, Rogerson, and patronymic forms like Fitz-Roger developed from it, while some later nicknames also spread from Roger into forms like Hodge and Hodgson. The surname is less common than those derivatives, but it remains a straightforward hereditary name based on a medieval personal name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers connected Roger with a whole family of nickname forms, including Hodge and Hodgson, through medieval pet-name patterns.
From the historical record
“Rohan, q.v. ROGER = Rodger, q>. Rogerus, 'B.ogenns.^Domesday-Book. See the quotations from Chaucer, etc., under Hodge. Roger (variantly Rogier) is a common French surname, found also with the dim. suff. -eau (earlier -el), -et, -on. In Wace's ' Roman de Rou 'Rogier is the usual form, as ' Rogier de Montgomeri.'”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)