RAKESTRAW
Rakestraw is an English surname, its earliest known use recorded in the late fourteenth century. The name is attested in the Yorkshire Poll Tax rolls of 1379, where a William Rakestraw is listed, and in the Richmond Wills Register of 1616, containing entries for George Raikstray of Ulverston and Thomas Rakestraw of Heysham.
The derivation of the name can be traced to the Old English words rake, meaning a gardening tool, and straw, meaning straw itself. From these elements the surname was apparently supplied to a person who either manufactured or made use of rakes, or was nicknamed on the basis of a straw‑like appearance or hair colour.
Over the centuries the spelling of the name has varied widely, being recorded as Rackstraw, Raikstraw, Raikstray, Rexstraw and Racster. These variants appear in parish registers, wills and other legal documents throughout England, particularly in the counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Oxford, Somerset and Gloucestershire.
In the late nineteenth century the Victorian scholar Canon Charles Bardsley investigated the surname, concluding first that it was likely occupational, perhaps for a refuse collector or a farm contractor who travelled from field to field raising hay and straw. He later revised his view, proposing instead a locational origin; however, he could not identify any place name that matched the surname, and no such locality is known today. The possibility that the name derives from a now lost medieval village remains, for although the evidence is incomplete, a significant proportion of British surnames have such a provenance.
In contemporary United States data the Rakestraw surname remains relatively uncommon, and it is most highly concentrated in the state of Arkansas, with more than five thousand recorded instances. Other states with notable numbers include Illinois, Florida, Georgia and Indiana. Many of the bearers of the name in the United States can be traced to a single ancestral family, yet the exact route of migration and settlement is not yet fully documented.
Alternative scholarly perspectives link the surname to an Old French personal name Rastel, itself derived from the Germanic name Rodulf. According to this view the name was introduced to England following the Norman Conquest of 1066, with early occurrences recorded in the Kent Court Rolls of 1273. The theory also proposes a series of related surnames such as Rastell, Rastail and Rustell. While these connections are noted in the literature, they remain a minority hypothesis within the broader study of the name’s origins and are not universally accepted by contemporary genealogists.
Typical given names associated with the Rakestraw surname
Male
- James
- John
- Pater
- Roger
- Stephen
Female
- June
- Sarah
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Rakestraw in...
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There are approximately 43 people named Rakestraw in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around one in a million people in Britain are named Rakestraw.
