A modern English form near Rocco with Slavic and Mediterranean echoes, used today as a common modern given name.
Roko is primarily known as a Croatian given name, particularly associated with the Dalmatian coast, where the medieval Italian trading city of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik) cultivated deep connections with the cult of San Rocco (Saint Roch), the fourteenth-century French pilgrim-saint venerated as a protector against plague. San Rocco's feast day on August 16th remains one of the most celebrated holidays in Dubrovnik, and the name Roko became deeply embedded in Croatian Catholic naming tradition as a result — it is among the most common male names in the Dubrovnik region and carries strong regional identity. The underlying name Rocco (from which Roko derives) traces to the Old High German "hrok," meaning rest or repose.
Saint Roch himself was born in Montpellier around 1348 and became famous for tending plague victims across Italy before reportedly contracting the disease himself and recovering miraculously. He is typically depicted with a sore on his thigh, a pilgrim's staff, and often a dog — the faithful animal said to have brought him bread while he convalesced in the forest. This iconography made him one of the most recognizable saints of late medieval Europe, and his name spread across Catholic Europe in dozens of linguistic variants.
In Japan, Roko (六子 or ろこ) also exists as an independent feminine name, meaning "sixth child" or constructed from various kanji. This parallel existence in two entirely different cultural traditions gives the name an unusual quality: it is deeply local in both Croatia and Japan while sounding perfectly natural in an English-speaking context. The name has found some contemporary traction internationally, appreciated for its brevity, its exotic sound, and its genuine historical depth.