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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dreain ‘descendant of Drean’, a byname possibly from dreán ‘wren’. The name is also found in Scotland.
  • Irish (Cork) : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Druacháin (see Drohan).
  • English : from Middle English dreine ‘drain’, ‘ditch’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a ditch digger or a topographic name.
  • English : variant spelling of Drane.
  • French : reduced form of Derain, from Old French dererain ‘last’, hence a nickname for the youngest son of a family.
  • French : habitational name from a place in Maine-et-Loire called Drain.

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