This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the drake'; compare Duck, Goose, but not Gosling, which see, Wildgoose, &c.

Richard le Drake, Lancashire, 1332: Lay Subsidy (Rylands).

Adam le Drake. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Martin le Drake. Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinesi.

Sanaa Drake, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Stephen Drake, Somerset, t Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Ricardus Drake, et Magota uxor ejus, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johannes Drae, 1379: ibid.

1645. Married — Thomas Martin and Sarah Drake: St. Dionis Backchurch.

The ancestor of the Drakes of Stokestown, Co. Wexford, came to Ireland as a Cromwellian official.

Drakes, however, were in Dublin in the thirteenth century and the Drakes of Drakerath were one of the leading families in Co. Meath from 1386. The name actually occurs in that county as early as 1311.

Drakerath is near Kells. There is a Drakestown in Co. Meath in the barony of Morgallion, also named from the Drake family-in this case a parish as well as a townland. Another Drakestown, yet again the home of Drake family in mediaeval times, is in Co. Louth (bar. Ardee). Their prominence up to the time they lost their estates under the Cromwellian regime is indicated by the frequency with which their name occurs in all kinds of records relating to Leinster (and to a small extent also to Co. Cork): there are for example 65 references to Drak and Drake in the Patent Rolls from 1318, when the first in that source occurs, down to 1509. A very remarkable man of the Drakerath family was Peter Drake (1671-1755).

His Memoirs published in 1755 (and recently re-issued under the title of Amiable Renegade) vividly describes his adventurous life as a soldier in Ireland and in the service of France. At the present time the name is found in Dublin and Belfast and in small numbers in Counties Meath and Cork.

(Anglo-Latin) a nickname, or sign-name, from the Drake, or the Dragon [Middle English drake; Old English draca (Latin draco), a dragon] Adam le Drake.—Cal. Inq. P.M.

The Drakes of Drakestown, Co. Wexford, are Cromwellian, but those of Drakerath and Drakestown, Co. Meath, are there since the fourteenth century. SIF 58

(English) Dweller at the sign of the dragon; one so nicknamed because of a dragon in his coat of arms; one with the qualities of a male duck; one who played the part of a dragon in the mysteries and miracle plays.

Not from the waterfowl, but from Anglo-Saxon draca (Latin draco,) a dragon. Le Dragun, the Anglo-Norman form, occurs in the H.R., but the nearest approach to this that I have seen in modem times is Drago, a name which existed at Ely about a century since. Several families of Drake bear as arms the wyvern, or two-legged dragon; and it is worthy of remark that in giving to various pieces of cannon the names of monsters and animals of prey, that of ' drake' was assigned to a peculiar species of gun, as those of caliver, basilisk, culverin, fawconet, saker-all appellations of serpents and rapacious birds-were to others. The compounds, "fire-drake," and "hell-drake," become intelligible when the latter syllable is understood to mean, not the harmless and familiar denizen of the pool, but the ' fell dragoun ' of medieval romance. Sir Thomas Smith, in his treatise "De Republica Anglicana," speaking of his contemporary, the celebrated Elizabethan admiral, Sir Francis Drake, (contrary to the generally received notion that he was bom in Devonshire,) asserts that he was the son of a fisherman in the Isle of Wight, and that the name of Drake was not his family appellation but an assumption: "Draconis nomen ipse sibi sumpsit, quod est serpentum quoddam genus." He adds that the Dunkirkers fitted out a fine ship called the Dog, for the purpose of hunting and perhaps catching this sea-serpent: "Dunkercani insignem navem instruxerunt, Doggam (id est Canem) a se appellatam, innuentes ea se Draconem hunc venaturos et forte capturos." Le Drac is an ancient form of the name.

. (Gaelic.) Drak, a drake; drac, a route, a way, a footstep; one who draws or leads, a leader.

Sir Francis, or De Montacute, the renowned Admiral, b. near Tavistock, 1545 (the son of Edmond D.), considered himself to be of the same ancestry as Sir Bernard Drake, of Ash; but the relationship being remote, the latter disclaimed it. There is, however, no reason to doubt that the D.s of Devon were all originally of the same race. Drake or Draco, Fitz-Draco, was a form of Drogo, or Fitz-Drogo. Drogo de Montacute, 1086, held Chenolle, Somerset, in capite; Shepton, in the same county, from the Earl of Mortaine; and numerous lordships in Devon from the Bishop of Coutances. Among the last was Thornberie (Domesd., 103). Richard Fitz-Drogo granted this latter place to Montacute Priory (Mon. i. 670). Before 1146, Robert Draco (i.e. Fitz-Droco or Drogo) witnessed the foundation charter of Exeter Priory (Mon. i. 643). In 13th cent. Richard Fitz-Drogo held from Montacute Priory Thornberie, above-mentioned (Testa, 184). The Drakes of Devon bore a dragon (Draco), showing that their name had been Draco or Fitz-Draco.

From the Danish, Dræger, Dracke; from the Swedish, Draghi, Drake; from the Dutch, Drager; from the Flemish, Draecke; a personal name.

Drake: a dragon. The drake gules was the cognizance of the ancient family of Drake of Ashe, near Axminster. In this instance it is probable that the armorial bearing was occasioned by the name, and that some legend lay behind the name. Sir Francis Drake, the navigator, assumed the arms, though he could establish no relationship, and a contest of words ensued in the presence of Queen Elizabeth between Sir Bernard Drake of Ashe and the sailor.

“Well,” said the Queen,”I will settle the dispute. Sir Francis shall bear on his coat a ship carrying reversed on its flag the wyvern gules.”

Eventually, unwilling to mortify so worthy a man as Sir Bernard, she granted to Sir Francis an entirely different coat.

The name of Drake has long been associated with this county. Sir Francis Drake, the Elizabethan hero, was born at Crowndale, Tavistock, in 1541. He was the first of the line of baronets of Buckland - Monachorum, but the baronetcy became extinct about 1736 (P.). Westcote refers to the ancient gentle family of Drake of Ash - in - Musbury, in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 17th century a gentle family of Drake resided at Spratsliayes, Exmouth (Webb). Henry Drake was mayor of Barnstaple in 1679 (G.). Drake is also found numerously represented in the neighbouring county of Dorset. Further reference to this name will be found under "Norfolk.".

Drake is a characteristic Dorset name. A gentle family of Drake owned Childhay manor, Broad Windsor, in the reign of Charles I.; and John Drake was a West Chelborough gentleman in the reign of Charles II. (H.).

The Norfolk Drakes are now well established in Attleborough and Norwich. The name was connected with the municipality of Norwich as far back as the 15th century, and a gentle family of Drake lived at Hardley in the time of Elizabeth (Bl.). The name now occurs also in Dorset, Devon, and in the West Biding. In the 13th century it was established in Lincolnshire, Hunts, and Cambridgeshire (H. R.).