[schoen]

Do you suppose the original etymology of "Rothuizen" could have been an older Germanic name that might have been rendered as "Rodehuizen" in modern Dutch? (I'm thinking of modern German "rot" corresponding to modern Dutch "rood".)

Wiktionary seems to believe in a Middle Dutch "*rōt (in placenames)" referring to the color red.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic...

[jacquesm]

Yes, that is very well possible. But that is not how an average Dutch person would read it.

Your reading makes excellent sense though, since a lot of the houses here are made of red brick.

Maybe he did not want to be limited in his choices of brick colors :)