Rothschild (German pronunciation: [ˈʁoːt.ʃɪlt]) is a name derived from the German zum rothen Schild (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs with different symbols or colors, not numbers. The name Rothschild in Yiddish means "red coat" (coat as in heraldic coat of arms). The Rothschild banking family's coat of arms features in the center of its heraldry a red shield.
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Main article: Rothschild family |
The most notable family of people with this surname are descendants of Mayer Amschel Rothschild who formed a financial dynasty and, in modern history, perhaps the wealthiest family by the scale of their private fortune.
In Denmark, by royal decree of 29 March 1814, all Danish Jews were obliged to adopt a surname after their town of residence. In the records, one family with residence in Roskilde took the name Rothschild, presumably because of the German pronunciation of the town's name.[1] The wife of writer Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, Lea Rothschild (born 1801), was of that family. There are no indications that the Rothschilds of Roskilde had any relation with the other Rothschild families.
The name is also carried by others, mostly Ashkenazi Jews, who are not related to members of the banking family.
