Family name origins & meanings
- English : topographic name for someone who lived by a pass or narrow valley, from Old English hraca ‘throat’, or a habitational name from any of the minor places deriving their name from this word, such as Rake in Devon or The Rake in Sussex.
- English and Dutch : from Middle English, Middle Dutch rake ‘rake’, applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of such implements or as a nickname for a tall thin man. (The expression ‘lean as a rake’ is found in Chaucer.)