Where does the last name Rado come from?

Question

My last name is Rado, and I don't know the origin of it, and my dad dosen't know, nor do my granparents, could you please help me?

Answer 1

Here are some links that might help you get started on a genealogy. I found a few famous Rados, and it looks like they were mostly in Switzerland, Hungary, and that general area.

Do you know the names of your great-grandparents and exactly what town/county, and state they lived in at least 70 years ago? If you do, I could look for census information in our local genealogical library and see if I can find anything. If your grandparents are over 70, I could search for them in the old census, if I had their names, addresses for them from 1930! All those old records are on microfilm, and accessible to the public. (Records are not released until they are 70 years old!)

http://www.familyhistory.com/surnames.asp?surname=Rado&d=Rado+genealogy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Rado - Tells the story of one famous Rado.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Rado.html - Another famous Rado.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rado_(watch) - Famous Swiss watches!

http://www.kabalarians.com/male/rado.htm - meaning given for first name "Rado"

The article below mentions the name "Rado" as being a popular first name in France during the middle ages:
"The name Radant can be found in France. There are two possible explanations for this surname.
In one case the surname could be derived from the first name of the mother or father. Here the first name is derived from the first name "Rado" which was very popular during the middle ages. The name "Rado" means "all-knowing Omniscient" and thus denotes a very intellegent Person.
The surname "Radant" could also be local in origin, derived from a place a man once lived or owned. An example of this that it could be taken from the city of "Redon" in the south West of France.The name Radant would be orthographic of the name "Redon". "

Hope this helps a little!

~Your Y!A Mom

Answer 2

This is all I could find for you,
Rado
Catalan (Radó): from the Germanic personal name Rado.
Catalan (Radó): nickname for a fat person, variant of Rodó, from a derivative of Latin rotundus ‘round’.
Italian: from a Germanic personal name, Rato, Rado, Ratdo.
Hungarian (Radó): from the old secular name Radó, from Rád (Slavic Rad).

hope this helps.

Answer 3

Hmmm....I'm not sure about this but Rado sounds Romanian. Can you ask your parents and grandparents on what their ancestry was? It might help.

But then again, Rado could be something else.

Answer 4

Rado Watches Wikipedia

Answer 5

My uncles last name is Rado and he came from Hungary.