Rocha surname meaning

Rocha is chiefly a Portuguese and Galician surname from rocha, “rock.” It could describe someone who lived by a rocky outcrop or identify a person from one of many places called Rocha. The preposition in da Rocha, and related forms such as Roca and Arocha, reflect regional naming and spelling practices rather than one universal family tree. The catalog uses place because the landscape and place-name route is strongest, with high confidence. A particular Rocha family may have taken the name independently in Portugal, Galicia, Brazil, or elsewhere in the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking world.