German surname "Roemisch"?

[CordedWhelp]

Roemisch or, slightly more commonly, Romisch. A family name a bit down my mother's line. I understand that it means "Roman" in German...and it is a name I have yielded little fruit in, in terms of my own research.

Is this an ethnic identifier for someone from Rome who emigrated to German-speaking lands? Something to denote a Roman Catholic? Something else?

Would be interested in anyone's anecdotes or ideas.

[Geminus]

A surname like Römisch or Römer seems to describe mostly people who went on a pilgrimage to Rome or merchants who brought goods from Rome.
Roman ancestry is most likely not the origin of the name.

[Peterski]

Sounds a bit like Romansh, maybe it is a surname of Latin origin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaeto-Romance_languages

[Óttar]

A surname like Römisch or Römer seems to describe mostly people who went on a pilgrimage to Rome or merchants who brought goods from Rome.
Roman ancestry is most likely not the origin of the name.

I have an ancestor from the 12th century from Italy named Pietro il Romano. One could append the title "the Roman" to their name if they went to Rome to study, which my ancestor did. His descendants moved to France and then fled persecution (they were Protestant Huguenots) to the Netherlands, where they moved to England and then to the US. Their name went through changes (Romaine, Romijn, etc).