When Robert Ernest White was born on 13 May 1894, in Logan, Harrison, Iowa, United States, his father, Henry Morton White, was 42 and his mother, Cora Adel White, was 19. He married Mildred Harold on 18 July 1918, in Harrison, Iowa, United States. He lived in Rawles Township, Mills, Iowa, United States in 1900 and Jefferson Township, Harrison, Iowa, United States in 1910. He died on 8 October 1918, in France, at the age of 24, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Harrison, Iowa, United States.
English: from Middle English white, wit (Old English hwīt ‘white’), hence a nickname for someone with white hair or a pale complexion. In some cases it is perhaps from a Middle English survival of the Old English personal name Hwīta, a short form of names in Hwīt- (from hwīt ‘white’). The name may also be topographic, referring to someone who lived by a bend or curve in a river or road (from Old English wiht ‘bend’), the source of the placename of Great Whyte in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (compare Wight ). This name is also a variant of Wight . The surname White is also very common among African Americans.
Irish and Scottish: adopted for any of several Irish and Scottish Gaelic names based on bán ‘white, fair’ (see Bain 1, McElwain ) or fionn ‘fair’ (see Finn 1). The English surname has been Gaelicized in Ireland as de Faoite.
Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames meaning ‘white’, for example German Weiss , French Blanc , Polish Białas (see Bialas ), Slovenian Belec , or any other synonymous Slavic surname beginning with Bel-, Bev-, Biel- or Bil-.
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