3,545 Global DAKE Family Members

DAKE Family History

This very unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Daecca", of obscure and ancient origin. The personal name appears as the first element in the placenames Dagenham, in Essex, recorded as "Daeccanhaam" in the Saxon Charters of 692, and meaning "Daecca's homestead or estate", and Daglingworth in Gloucestershire, recorded as "Dakelingwrth" in 1200, and meaning "the homestead of Daecca's people". The personal name is recorded in the 12th Century as "Decche", and in 1250 as "Dacke" (Staffordshire).

Dake Family From Wexford

DAKE is a very rare Wexford name, still found in the Carrig-onBannow district where Dake families have been long established.

According to the Wexford historian Nicholas Furlong, it is a Flemish name, believed to have come to Wexford with the first mercenary group under Richard FitzGodebert (Roche) to assist King Dermot MacMurrough at Ferns in 1167. Furlong notes that the name is like the German and Dutch word for a dyke.

Richard Dake, who owned 71 acres at Cullentragh in Carrig parish (Shelmalier West) in 1640, was one of the Irish Papists who were dispossessed in the Cromwellian confiscations. Fr.James Dake was pastor of the Rathangan area from 1810 to 1830.2

Strangely the name Dake does not appear in Griffith's Valuation of occupiers in the county in 1853, but there is one Dack in Ardamine. Dack (earlier Dacke) is an English name, on record in Staffordshire in 1250.3

In Grange (Kilmore) cemetery a gravestone records the deaths of Elizabeth Dake (alias Kehoe), on February 3, 1784, aged 68, and of John Dake, on February 4, 1786, aged 80 (or 89); Another gravestone was erected by Stephen Dake in memory of Eleanor Dake (alias Reville), who died February 11,1873, aged 64; also of his brother, Richard Dake, died October 16, 1838, aged 20 years; also his sister, Catherine Dake, died June 1, 1865, aged 19 years, and of his father, Richard Dake, died June 4, 1888, aged 80.

Dakes were formerly dairy farmers at Mulgannon, near Wexford town. Katherine Dake of this family joined the Augustinian Sisters as a late vocation in 1952, and made her final profession as Sr. Antoinette in London in 1954. She later went to France and at time of writing she was living at the Augustinian Sisters at 2 Rue du Laubourg, St. Nicholas. 77109 Meaux.

Members of the Dake families of Duncormick and Bannow were noted athletes in the late 19th century, their names figuring prominently as prize-winners in track and field events at sports meetings all over south Wexford at that time.