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English: nickname from Middle English drake either ‘drake male duck’ (compare Duck ) or ‘dragon’ (Old English draca ‘snake dragon’ or the cognate Old Norse draki) including an emblematic dragon on a flag (compare Dragon ). Both the Old English and the Old Norse forms are from Latin draco ‘snake monster’; its sense as a nickname is unclear but it may have had the sense ‘standard bearer’. The name was taken to Ireland in the 13th century and reinforced by later English settlers in the 17th century. German: from Low German drake ‘dragon’ familiar as image on signboards hence a topographic or habitational name referring to a house or inn with such signboard. Dutch: variant mostly Americanized and Flemish of Draak a cognate of 2 above from draak (Middle Dutch drake) ‘dragon’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022