Last name

Drake

English

The surname Drake is of English origin. The name is derived from the Old English byname 'Draca', snake or dragon, the Middle English 'Drake', or sometimes from the cognative Old Norman 'Draki'. Both are common bynames and, less frequently, given names. Both the Old English and Old Norman forms are derived from the Latin 'draco', snake, dragon ( a winged serpent ). The name was used in Middle English of a battle-standard as well as of a serpent or a water-monster; thus the surname is also a metonymic for Draker, 'standard bearer'. The name may also de derived from a nickname for someone with a fancied resemblance to a goose, duck, from the Middle English 'drake', male duck ( from the Middle Low German 'andrake' ). The word nickname is derived from "an eke-name" or added name, and since surnames originated as added names for help in identification, all surnames are, in a sense, nicknames. The name dates as far back as the tenth century were a Leuing Drache is recorded in historical archives. The name was brought to America predominately by English immigrants. One of the first fore fathers to bring this name to America is that of a Benjamin Drake, who settled at Boston, Massachusetts in 1630; and after moving to Windsor, Connecticut, sailed down the Bronx River to Mouny Vernon, New York, where he, with Stephen Pell and others, built a church which is still standing. This name is the four-hundredth and twenty-ninth most common surname in America.

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