rooker

Rooker is an English-language surname and a term associated with several notable people and legal references. As a surname, it appears in anglophone countries and is borne by figures in politics, entertainment, and other fields.

Prominent individuals with the surname include Michael Rooker (born 1955), an American actor known for character roles in film and television, notably as Yondu Udonta in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and as Merle Dixon on the television series The Walking Dead. He has appeared in a range of genre films and is frequently associated with director James Gunn. Another notable bearer is Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker (born 1941), a British Labour politician who served in the House of Commons and was later elevated to the House of Lords; he held various party and governmental positions during his parliamentary career.

In law, "Rooker" appears in the name of the 1923 U.S. Supreme Court case Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., which, together with the later case District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, gave rise to the Rooker–Feldman doctrine. That doctrine limits the ability of federal district courts to act as appellate tribunals over final state-court judgments.

The name also appears in other contexts and among lesser-known public figures; references typically require additional qualifiers (given name, title, or context) to distinguish among persons and usages.