Family name origins & meanings
- English (chiefly Lancashire) : from Middle English cranke ‘lively’, ‘lusty’, ‘vigorous’, hence a nickname for a cheerful, boisterous, or cocky person.
- English : nickname from cranuc, a diminutive of Middle English cran ‘crane’ (see Crane).
- Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Kranke, from Low German Kraneke ‘crane’, applied to someone thought to resemble the bird in some way, or a nickname for a poor physical specimen, from Middle High German kranc ‘sickly’, ‘ailing’.