Recorded as Von Rosenau, Rosenau, Rosenauer, Rosnau, and others, this is a surname of German and sometimes Ashkenasic medieval origins, of which it has several. As such it is either locational from a place called Rosenau, which means the place of the roses, or it may have been topoghraphical to describe a pewrson who lived at a house with a sign of a rose, or occupational to describe a rose grower or perhaps a herbalist, one who used the rose for medicinal puposes, or it may have been from the female name Rose. In all cases the word, and hence the later surname is from the original Latin word "rosa," intoduced into Germany before the 5th ventury a.d. There are no less than three coat of arms of the various Rosenau branches, of which the most popular is probably that of Westphalia being a canting of three silver roses on a black field. A canting is where the charges on the shield, in this cases the three roses, are the same as the surname. It is unclear when the name was first recorded but examples of recordings include Elizabetha Lucretia von Rosenau, baptised at Frankenberg, Bayern in 1657, although the actual date is not recorded, Johann Rosenau who was a christening witness at Niederzenren, West Preussen on December 5th 1795, and Ernst Rosnau, who was christened at Grossleistenau, West Preussen on May 11th 1875.

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