The name Gerotwohl occurs originally among Frankfurt Christians, and only later among the Jews of the town. It is obviously derived from the customary greeting of the day: "gerate wohl", meaning "farewell". The name appears among Jews briefly in the 16th century. Several branches who were to play a significant role among Frankfurt Jews were descended from the Haas family, who lived there in the early 16th century. At the end of the 16th century, one such branch took the name Gerotwohl. The Gerotwohls moved into the Schuh, and lived there for several generations. This became a reason to change the family name, and the house name Schuh was adopted as the family name. In 1800, a further family named Gerotwohl migrated to Frankfurt from Büdesheim in Upper Hessen. They were not related to the earlier family of this name.