Frequency: (117)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Eastern German: from Sorbian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak rak ‘crab’, presumably applied as a nickname or possibly as a metonymic occupational name for someone who sold shellfish.
2. German: nickname from Middle High German rac ‘taut’, ‘stretched’; ‘busy’, ‘free’.
3. German: from a short form of any of various personal names beginning with Rac-.
4. Shortened form of Dutch van Raak, a habitational name from any of various places named De Raak.
GIVEN NAME German 5%. Egon.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
