The surname Drake
A German nickname surname, carried by 61,162 people in the United States.
Pronounced /dɹeɪk/ 1 syllable Soundex D620 Also a first name
Origin
German origin
* As an English surname, from both senses of the noun drake meaning "male duck" and "dragon." * As a German surname, from Low German drake (“dragon”), related to the above. * As a Dutch surname, Americanized/West Flemish variant of Draak, also related to the above.
Drake is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 61,162 people named Drake in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 5,048 Americans. That is up 3.6% since 2000, when the Census counted 59,055.
Who is named Drake
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
80% of people named Drake identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 80%
- Black (not Hispanic) 15%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
- Two or more races 2.0%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Famous Drakes
25 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Frank DrakeAmerican astronomer and astrophysicist (1930–2022)
- Larry DrakeAmerican actor (1950–2016)
- Edwin DrakeAmerican oil driller, popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the Unit, 1819–1880
- Frances DrakeAmerican actress (1912-2000)
- David DrakeAmerican author of science fiction and fantasy literature (1945–2023)
- Charles DrakeAmerican actor (1917-1994)
- Betsy DrakeAmerican actress and writer (1923–2015)
- Tom DrakeAmerican actor (1918–1982)
- Bob DrakeAmerican racing driver (1919–1990)
- Dona DrakeActress, singer, dancer (1914-1989)
- Gabrielle DrakeBritish actress, born 1944
- Alfred DrakeAmerican actor (1914-1992)
Notable Drakes come mostly from the United States (23) and the United Kingdom (2).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Drake has the Soundex code D620, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code D620.
Other German surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Drake come from?
- * As an English surname, from both senses of the noun drake meaning "male duck" and "dragon." * As a German surname, from Low German drake (“dragon”), related to the above. * As a Dutch surname, Americanized/West Flemish variant of Draak, also related to the above.
- How common is the surname Drake?
- 61,162 people in the United States had the surname Drake in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 5,048 Americans. It ranked 549th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Drake?
- In the 2010 Census, 80% of people named Drake identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Drake?
- Frank Drake, American astronomer and astrophysicist (1930–2022), followed by Larry Drake.
- Where is the surname Drake most common?
- Wikidata records people named Drake in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- How do you pronounce Drake?
- Drake is /dɹeɪk/, one syllable.
- What type of surname is Drake?
- Drake is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
- Is the surname Drake getting more or less common?
- More common. 59,055 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 61,162 in 2010, up 3.6%.
- Is Drake also a first name?
- Yes. Drake is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.